The Wandering Shinobi
by TheUchiha'sLegacy
Summary: Sasuke, devoid of the memories of his past life, is now a wanderer in North Rukongai. As he journeys to Seireitei, he finds his escaping memories gradually returning to him... Can Sasuke fight and regain control of his former self? Can he gain even greater strength and overcome the darkness threatening to overtake him, or will he fail and die just a fading memory of his past life?
1. The Wanderer in Rukongai

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Bleach.

**Author's Note:** Welcome to the first chapter of my new story, "The Wandering Shinobi." This is a Sasuke-centered fanfic, but Naruto, Ichigo, and other Naruto and Bleach characters will be making an appearance in this story later on. **This is a test story, so if I end up not liking it after a few weeks, I will be taking it down.** Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy the first chapter, and please make sure to leave a review if you liked or disliked anything about this story.

**Information:**

- An italicized paragraph means that it's a flashback.

- Although I may be off by a little (or a lot), 100,000 yen is equivalent to about 1,000 dollars.

**Chapter 1: The Wanderer in Rukongai**

_If you think I'm just a foolish kid ruled by his emotions, that's fine. Following Itachi's path would be childish, the whispering of fools who don't know hatred. If anyone else tries to ridicule the way I live, I'll slaughter everyone they ever cared about. And then maybe they'll understand what it's like to taste… a little of my hatred…_

_- Uchiha Sasuke_

|North Rukongai|

A gust of wind passed through the nearly deserted area as a figure walked across the desert clearing and into a nearby tavern. All heads in the room looked up and turned towards the entrance as the wooden double doors creaked open, their suspicious eyes boring into the stranger as he walked into the old-fashioned bar.

As he walked across the room, the people in the room continued to stare at him suspiciously. The waitresses and female servers blushed as they glanced at his face, taken aback by his handsome features.

The figure was a fair-skinned male with piercing onyx eyes and black chin-length hair with bangs that roughly framed the sides of his cheeks along with a spiked back. His face could have been considered extremely attractive, and he had a lean yet fairly muscular figure. He was dressed in a zippered grey high-collared shirt with short sleeves and blue wrist warmers on his forearms along with dark blue pants that had a dark purple cloth hanging from halfway up to his stomach down to his knees. His outfit was completed with a purple rope belt tied into a bow where a sheathed chokutō hung from, and he wore a pair of dark blue open-toed sandals.

As he ordered a drink, a certain individual with dirty brown hair and blue eyes known the troublemaker of the district glared at the figure in jealously as all of the women in the bar turned their attention to him. _Che!_ he scoffed in his head. _Just who does that guy think he is?_ Slowly getting up from his seat, he walked over to the new arrival and leaned on the counter next to him. "So…" he started casually. "What's a little kid like _you_ doing in such a dangerous place like this? Shouldn't you get home before your mommy starts worrying about you?"

…

The individual, who had been quietly looking down at his drink, slowly lifted his head and glanced at the person beside him out of the corner of his eyes. "Beat it." When he spoke, his voice was flat and masculine with a dark tone in it. After telling the stranger off, he returned to looking down at his drink, an unreadable expression on his face.

The troublemaker clenched his jaw in anger as he heard a couple of people snickering around him while some of the waitresses giggled out loud, hiding their mouths with their trays. "Why you…!" Slamming his hands down on the counter in anger, he grabbed the newcomer's shoulder and spun him around, drawing his right arm back for a blow. "Don't talk to me with that cocky tone, kid! I'll beat the shit out of-!" He suddenly stopped talking as the new figure grabbed his wrist, lifting it off of his shoulder and twisting it as he threw him into a nearby table in a single smooth and fluid motion.

THUD! The brown-haired figure yelled out in surprise as he completely smashed the table with his heavy figure, causing the drinks to spill over and the customers that were seated around it to jump up out of their seats in surprise.

"Ugh…" The figure rubbed the back of his head as he looked up at the ceiling in a daze. "What the hell just happened…?" He suddenly blinked and looked down as he felt something cold prick the nape of his neck. Lowering his gaze from the ceiling, his eyes rested on the new figure that was standing over him, his sword at his throat. "Wh-Who are y-you…?" he asked nervously, his eyes wide with fright at the thought of his life ending so suddenly.

The figure narrowed his eyes as he stared down at the man, a blank expression on his face as he answered. "My name is Uchiha… Sasuke."

…

The brown-haired figure blinked in surprise as the newcomer suddenly spun around, sheathing his sword as he walked back towards the entrance of the bar. It was only when the dangerous individual completely left the bar that he let out the breath that he had been unconsciously holding the whole entire time, sighing in relief as he touched the spot on his neck where the stranger's sword had been pressing against.

...Once he had exited the bar, Sasuke looked up at the sky, closing his eyes as he breathed in the cool air of the morning. _The day's only just begun and it's started out so annoying… I wonder if the rest of the day will go just as bad… _Sighing exhaustedly, he shook off his depressing thoughts and continued onwards.

* * *

Finding a quiet and secluded spot up in the mountains a little while later, Sasuke unfastened his chokutō from his makeshift belt and set it on the flat rock beside him. Stretching out his arms and legs, he then proceeded to carry out his daily morning exercises, which was composed of a set of three hundred push-ups and sit-ups as well as numerous other exercises that involved stretching out all of his limbs and maintaining his flexibility and agility.

After completing his daily exercise routines, he grabbed his sword from the rock and proceeded to walk down the mountain.

* * *

Once he had reached the nearby Rukongai district, the first thing that Sasuke did was walk up to a nearby tavern in order to check the bounty status that was frequently posted on various taverns by Seireitei. In order to better maintain the peace throughout the four Rukongai regions without having to constantly deploy the Gotei 13 throughout the areas, Central 46 had decided to mark various criminals that they had deemed dangerous in their eyes as bounties, offering a big reward to anyone who killed off these bounties. The bounty hunters were then to take the bounties to one of the numerous bounty exchange offices that were stationed throughout Soul Society in order to exchange the bounties for the reward money.

The first bounty that caught Sasuke's eyes was a male named Senju, who, according to the bounty picture, was a fairly long black-haired male with dark brown eyes that had terrorized numerous citizens in district #78 in North Rukongai. The bounty was considered extremely dangerous, and the bounty reward was 100,000 Kan.

_Hmmm…_ Sasuke blinked as he glanced over the other bounties. _The first bounty is in district #78, which is about a day's journey from where I'm at right now, but still… it's a lot closer than any of the other bounties…_ Sighing as he rolled his neck, he turned around and started off in the direction of the district that the bounty was located at.

_Later that night…_

Sasuke sighed as he sat down on the grass, leaning back against a large flat rock as he sighed in exhaustion from having walked over ten hours nonstop. Drinking water from a slender bamboo container, he looked up at the night sky and stared at the numerous stars in the sky.

_I wonder… If tōsan and kaasan were still alive, would they be among the stars, or… are they alive somewhere, just waiting for me to find them…? But then again, I can't remember what they look like… I wonder if they resemble me at all…_ Frowning at how pathetic he must look having such a childish conversation with himself, Sasuke shook off his thoughts again for the second time that day and leaned his head back against the smooth surface of the rock. Closing his eyes, he grew still as he waited for sleep to overtake him.

…

_A young Sasuke laughed out loud from his spot on his brother's back. "Nii-san, will I ever be a great ninja like you?"_

_Sasuke's brother turned his head to face him and gave his younger brother a big smile. "I'm sure that you will, Sasuke. Just make sure that you try your best and do well in all of your classes, and you'll become a great ninja in no time."_

"_Really?!" asked Sasuke excitedly. As he opened his mouth to say something, he suddenly closed his mouth and frowned. "But still… Even if I __**do**__ become strong like you, tōsan will just say that I became like you… I sometimes think that all he cares about is you and not me…" Sasuke sniffed as tears threatened to spill from his eyes._

_Sasuke's older brother gave him a sad smile as he turned around, his face hidden from Sasuke. "Sasuke, tōsan might seem like that at first, but trust me when I say that he loves you dearly… Also…" As Sasuke gave him an inquiring look, he turned around and gave him a big loving smile that even surprised young Sasuke._

"_If you ever need me, then just ask," he said in a warm and caring voice. "As your brother, I will always be there for you."_

…

Sasuke opened his eyes, a blank expression on his face as he stared up at the bright stars in the sky. _What… was that…? And the person who I was laughing and talking with… Who was he…?_

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he heard a shrill scream pierce the air. "What was that?!" Quickly grabbing his chokutō that lay on the grass by his side, he quickly sprang up and sped towards the direction of the scream, the wind pelting his face as he streaked across the clearing.

… Once he reached the source of the scream, he found a group of towering Hollows standing over a figure clad in black, their arms drawn back in preparation of an attack. Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke unsheathed his sword and leapt into the air, swiftly dispatching the group of Hollows in a matter of mere seconds.

When he finished, he spun his sword in his hand and sheathed it in a single smooth movement. Turning his head, Sasuke glanced back at the figure that lay on the ground behind him. The figure was a female that seemed to be in her early twenties, and she was an orange-haired curvaceous female with a very attractive face. She was also clad in a black kimono-like robe that exposed her large busty cleavage.

"Th-Thank you," stuttered the woman in a very smooth and feminine voice. "I guess that I just got taken by surprise… It's embarrassing for me to have gotten caught off guard like that against a few Hollows." Getting up, she dusted the back of her robe and gave Sasuke a big smile in thanks. "Well anyways, thanks again for-." She stopped in mid-sentence as Sasuke turned around, exposing his face to her. _Wh-Whoa… He's such a handsome fellow…!_ "Th-Thanks again for y-your help," she finished in a nervous stutter.

Sasuke stared at her through narrowed eyes for a brief moment before responding. "Yea… No problem." He then looked over her entire figure curiously. "Your robe… You're a Shinigami, aren't you?"

The woman seemed surprised by his question. "Well… yea! Isn't it obvious?" She copied Sasuke and glanced over him as well. "And as for you… I don't recognize your style of clothing… Even if you _were_ from the first ten districts of Rukongai, your clothing seems a little too fancy and unique to have come from there… Who are you…? What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Sasuke," he replied curtly. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Well, I'm the jubantai-fukutaichou, Matsumoto Rangiku," said the woman with a smile. She extended out her right hand, which Sasuke took and shook after a moment of hesitation. "It's nice to meet you."

Giving her a curt nod, Sasuke withdrew his hand and turned around to leave. The Shinigami seemed surprised by this and reached out her hand to stop him. "Wait, you're going already?"

Sasuke stopped and glanced back at her. "Don't you have some job to finish?" And with that, he turned his head to face forward and disappeared with a wisp of smoke, his speed surprising the Shinigami.

Rangiku rubbed the back of her neck as she stared at the spot where Sasuke was just at. "Uchiha Sasuke, huh…?"

|District #78, North Rukongai, Soul Society|

_The next day…_

Sasuke studied the faces in the village as he entered the heart of district #78, having just arrived at the border just over an hour ago. _Now… Where could he be…?_ As he glanced around the village, he grinned slightly as his eyes found a nearby tavern that seemed to be attracting quite a number of people. _Well well well, this should be easy… In these areas, a big crowd means a big fight, and a big fight… will definitely lead me to the bounty._

… As he entered the tavern, he found exactly what he was looking for. In the center of the crowd was a bar fight between his bounty Senju and three other people. Although the fight was three versus one, Senju seemed to be easily gaining the upper hand.

Grabbing a nearby opponent, Senju twisted his wrist and threw him onto a nearby table, completely reducing it into a pile of large splinters. Quickly spinning around, he smashed his elbow into another opponent's stomach, effectively knocking him out of the fight. The last opponent seemed hesitant to fight him, but there was nowhere to run as the exits were sealed off by the large crowd.

Grimacing, he grabbed a piece of wood with a sharp splintered end and ran towards Senju with a hoarse scream. "Hah!" laughed Senju maniacally. "Give me a better fight!" And with that, he grabbed the splintered wood barehanded and snapped it in half. Grabbing the final opponent by his throat, Senju swung him behind him and threw him across the bar where he landed in front of Sasuke's feet.

…

The bar grew silent as Sasuke picked the wounded figure up, helping him to the right side of the bar and propping him up against the wall. Turning from his spot to face Senju, Sasuke grabbed the hilt of his sword that was worn horizontally on his back and stared at him with a leveled look on his face. "So… You're the bounty, am I right?"

"Heh!" Senju grinned maliciously as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "Quite a cocky brat, aren't you?" Looking around at everyone in the bar, he bent down and picked up the fallen opponent that was lying on the ground behind him, holding him up so that everyone could see his limp figure. "Anyone that doesn't help me beat the shit out of this snot-nosed little brat will end up like him!"

"Oh?" Sasuke looked amused by this although his face remained blank save for a slight twitch out of the corner of his mouth that hinted the start of a grin. "So you need the help of your friends to beat a snot-nosed little brat up? Maybe the bounty was over exaggerating when it stated that you were 'extremely dangerous.'"

"What… did you just say…?!" Senju's bloodthirsty grin suddenly turned into a scowl of rage as he grabbed the sheathed katana that hung by his side. "You'll definitely pay for that comment, kid! Everyone, get him!"

The bar seemed to erupt in a roar as a large number of the crowd threw themselves at Sasuke, suddenly caught up in the heat of the fight. "Yea, let's get him!" yelled out a random opponent excitedly.

"Don't let that punk get away!"

"Let's kick his ass for Senju-sama!"

_Che…! _Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he withdrew his chokutō halfway from its' sheath. _Looks like there's no avoiding it…_ Quickly spinning around, he slammed the end of the hilt of his sword into one of the individual's stomach, easily knocking him out. Weaving in and out in order to dodge five more opponents that came flying towards him, he completely unsheathed his chokutō and skillfully used the hilt as a weapon, dispatching all five of them plus another five with relative ease. Flipping over onto his hands, he spun around and knocked back another three opponents with his feet before flipping back over onto his feet and effectively knocking them out of the battle with simple elbows and knees to the chest.

Cracking his neck with his hands, Sasuke sighed as he stared at Senju with a blank look on his face. As an opponent that was creeping up behind him leapt forward, he sidestepped him and slammed him down into the ground with an elbow to his back. The remainder of the opponents nervously backed away, leaving just the Uchiha and his opponent in the middle of the bar.

"Now…" Sasuke looked up at his bounty, narrowing his eyes as he leisurely unsheathed his chokutō. "All that's left is you… Make your move, bounty."

Senju grinned as he unsheathed his katana, revealing its' sleek silver blade to the Uchiha. The katana had a plain rectangular grey tsuba as well as a plain grey hilt. "This is my sword- my _Zanpakuto_. You have no chance of beating me now, brat."

"A… Zanpakuto…?" Sasuke looked surprised by this, as he had seen the female Shinigami's Zanpakuto from earlier, which was much different than the bounty's own. "The bounty notice never said that you were a Shinigami… What's a Shinigami like you doing in Rukongai?"

"Don't worry about the little details," replied Senju blankly. "Just consider it an honor that you're dying by my hands, brat… You're a hundred years too early to die by-." He was suddenly stopped in mid-sentence by Sasuke who had suddenly appeared in front of him, swinging his sword in a wide arc in an attempt to bisect him from the waist down. _S-So fast!_

Jumping back as fast as his legs would allow him, Senju was barely able to evade being cut in half; however, the tip of Sasuke's blade still managed to cut into his stomach, giving him a long shallow cut that stretched all the way across his stomach.

"Che!" Senju scoffed as he grabbed at his stomach wound, barely able to keep a straight face as a drop of sweat rolled down his face. "So fast… You're not an average kid, are you?"

Sasuke tilted his head to the side as he continued to stare silently at his bounty. "Apparently not." Spinning his weapon in his hand, Sasuke whipped his sword out by his side as he took a step towards Senju. "Already about to collapse from a single stomach wound? Instead of having left Seireitei, I find it easier to believe that you weren't able to become a Shinigami."

His face distorting in anger, Senju gripped his katana tightly as he jumped up, rushing at Sasuke with an enraged aura enveloping him. "SHUT THE HELL UP, BRAT!" he roared as he sped towards his calm opponent. "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO ANYWAYS?! JUST DIE ALREADY!"

As calm as ever, Sasuke twirled his sword in his hand and whipped it out in front of him, catching the enraged Shinigami by the side of his neck.

The entire crowd grew silent as Sasuke calmly sheathed his sword, and a few of the women screamed in horror as Senju's severed head rolled on the ground, coming to a halt beside the Uchiha's feet. Looking down at the limp body of the former Shinigami, Sasuke ignored it and instead grabbed the severed head by the hair, lifting it up and carefully wrapping it in a tablecloth from a nearby table. With that, he took the wrapped up head with him as he coolly walked over to the headless body, ignoring the quiet bystanders as they silently watched his every move.

Once he reached the body, he looked down at the katana that was held in Senju's death grip and pried it loose from his still warm dead fingers. "Hmmm… Nice sword," he said, and with that, he took both the sword and its' scabbard and hung it on his back through his rope belt, walking out of the tavern without another word.

|The Outskirts of District #45, North Rukongai, Soul Society|

_Three days later…_

Sasuke yawned as he stopped near the outskirts of district #45. This was where one of the bounty exchange offices was located at. _Well, I might as well get going…_ Stretching out his legs, he stared out at the sunrise, the sun's rays peeking out through the horizon to resemble a blood-soaked sky. _Heh… How fitting…_

… As he entered the district, all heads turned to face him, the people of the village obviously never having seen someone dressed so strangely as him. Looking around the central area of the village, Sasuke glanced around his surroundings until he found what he was looking for.

There, in a fancy building that stood out above the others, was where the bounty exchange office was located at. The building itself was actually where numerous hopefuls applied to get the chance to enter the Shin'ō Academy. The bounty exchange office was located inside of the building, and that was where Sasuke was headed.

* * *

Inside of the building was a long line of applicants whose ages ranged from twenty to even a hundred. As this was the Spirit World, people aged at a much slower rate. Looking around the building, Sasuke slung the wrapped up head of his bounty over his shoulder and walked up to the desk where a female Shinigami was seated behind. _So they have Shinigami run these places…?_ As he reached the desk, he noticed that the woman barely looked like she was in her twenties, and she was blushing furiously as she caught sight of his face.

"H-How may I h-help you, s-sir?" asked the helper in a nervous stutter.

Suppressing an annoyed sigh, Sasuke opened his mouth to reply. "I'm looking for the bounty exchange office."

"O-Oh, of course!" The female Shinigami got up out of her seat and walked towards the back room hurriedly. Sasuke could've sworn that he heard some kind of excited squeal coming from there as soon as the woman entered the room.

The woman came out of the room a moment later and motioned towards the door on Sasuke's right. "P-Please go through that door on your right," she said. "The bounty collectors are w-waiting for you. They just finished business with another bounty hunter, s-so you should be able to go in right away."

Giving her a nod in thanks, Sasuke turned around and walked towards the door. Once he reached it, he laid his hand on the doorknob, and, after a second of waiting, turned it, walking into the room without further notice.

… As Sasuke walked into the room, he noticed that the room itself was fairly empty save a sleek metal table that lay on the far left side of the room. There were also cabinets built into the wall in the front of the room, and the only people there save Sasuke was two figures clad in black kimonos, showing that they were indeed Shinigami like the helper up front.

The figure on the left was, much to Sasuke's surprise, a short male with messily spiked up white hair and turquoise blue eyes. Although he barely looked like a kid, it was obvious that he was a Shinigami. What was even _more_ surprising to Sasuke, however, was the fact that he also had on a white sleeveless haori, which was the universal term for that person being a captain. _Th-That __**kid**__ is a captain…?_ said Sasuke to himself. _He's definitely extremely young, yet he has a powerful and ice-cold aura surrounding him…_

Looking to the figure on the right, Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the extremely busty orange-haired female. _It's that Shinigami from before…!_

The two figures, who were hunched over the table studying some documents, looked up and turned around at the sound of the door opening. Rangiku, the busty female, looked shocked at the appearance of Sasuke. "No way!" She seemed overjoyed to see him, much to Sasuke's distaste. "Sasuke-kun, was it?" After receiving a curt nod from him, Rangiku introduced him to the young captain, explaining how they had met earlier.

"Hitsugaya-taichou, this is the guy that I was telling you about! Sasuke-kun was the one who saved me from the group of Hollows that-!"

"_Oh_?" drawled Hitsugaya, crossing his arms as he glared at his now-mentioned vice-captain. "I don't remember you mentioning that part about the trouble with the Hollows, Matsumoto… I thought you said that _you_ saved _him_, am I right…?"

"Heh heh," chuckled Rangiku nervously. "W-Well, I uh-…. Well, you see captain, I-…!"

"Save it," growled her captain in an annoyed voice. He then turned to face Sasuke. "So _you're_ Uchiha Sasuke, am I correct?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "I guess that you've come for your bounty reward?"

"Yea…" Throwing the severed head as well as the bounty paper on the table, Sasuke watched the young Shinigami as he went over to the wall cabinet and pulled out a large and fairly new tan sack full of Kan. Placing it down on the metal table, the young captain looked up at Sasuke. "Here's your bounty. Congratulations on having caught him, Uchiha Sasuke…" Noticing Sasuke's slight frown, Hitsugaya looked at him curiously. "You look like you have a question. What is it?"

"Why is a captain and his vice-captain doing bounty work?" asked Sasuke curiously. "I would've thought that a captain would have much more important matters to attend to rather than giving out rewards for bounties."

"That's a good point," sighed Hitsugaya as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, the truth is that we tend to check up on the various Rukongai regions quite frequently. The bigwigs in Seireitei ordered a squad to be posted in this district in order to assess the ryoka situation."

"The ryoka… situation…?"

The jubantai-taichou nodded. "Apparently five intruders from the World of the Living broke into Soul Society in order to rescue the felon Kuchiki Rukia. We just received word of this a few days ago, so my division was dispatched here in order to assess the situation."

Sasuke's eyes widened at the name "Kuchiki," obviously having heard of that name before. "Wait… Did you say 'Kuchiki?' I feel like I've heard that name before… Isn't it one of those Four Noble Families? Why would she…?"

"You're correct. She's the adopted sister of the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Family, Kuchiki Byakuya," explained Rangiku. "She was arrested and put on trial for execution for the crime of transferring her Shinigami powers to a human. Kuchiki-taichou and his vice-captain have already gone to the World of the Living and eliminated the human, but as for Rukia…" Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the floor, a look of sorrow on her face. Sighing, she looked back up at Sasuke after a brief moment of silence. "Anyways, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but if you ever happen to see any of the ryoka, please-."

"No thanks." Picking up his reward money, Sasuke turned around and started off towards the door. "Thanks for the information, but the ryoka are none of my business. I don't plan on wasting my time looking for something that has nothing to do with me."

Right as Sasuke reached for the doorknob, Hitsugaya spoke, stopping him. "Hey, Uchiha Sasuke…"

Sasuke glanced back at the captain, a blank expression on his face. "What is it?"

"Is that…" Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes as he eyed the second of the two swords that hung from the rope on Sasuke's back. "… a Zanpakuto? Where on earth did you manage to get one of those?"

Letting out a light scoff, Sasuke turned back around and opened the door. "Look at the head of the bounty. I'm sure that you'll recognize your own kind." And with that, he walked out of the room, the door softly closing shut behind him.

Rangiku frowned, a wistful glint in her sorrowful eyes. _Sasuke…_

…

Outside the building, Sasuke looked toward the risen sun in the east. _It's already morning… So much time has passed already…_ Glancing towards the horizon, Sasuke blinked as he started off towards the distance.

|District #60, North Rukongai, Soul Society|

_One month later…_

A soft breeze of wind rustled Sasuke's hair, causing it to sway to the side as he cut across the open plain. It had been one month since his last meeting with the two Shinigami, and he hadn't met a single one since. He had also been constantly meditating with his Asauchi, curious to hear its' voice; however, he had heard nothing.

Stopping near a large flat rock that stood in the middle of the plain, Sasuke sat in a meditative pose and laid his nameless Zanpakuto over his lap. Taking a deep breath, he calmed his mind and allowed his body to relax. As his mind began to float into a meditative state, he thought back to his meeting with Rangiku approximately one month ago.

… "_Sasuke, wait!"_

_Sasuke looked back from his spot in front of the building of the bounty exchange office to see Rangiku running towards him. "It's you, huh? What do you want?"_

_Stopping in front of him, Rangiku gave him a smile as she touched the hilt of the Zanpakuto that he taken from the dead Shinigami bounty. "This is called an Asauchi," she said suddenly, her voice soft and gentle. "It's basically a nameless Zanpakuto, which is why it looks so much different from mine. If you want to gain a __**real**__ Zanpakuto, what you need to do is meditate with it and pour your soul into it."_

_Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he stared at the female Shinigami. "What are you suddenly-?"_

"_I'm telling you this because I feel like you have the makings of a Shinigami," she explained. "Meditating with your Zanpakuto is something that was developed over a thousand years ago, and it's called Jinzen. If you really want to gain a Zanpakuto, try it out. You might find yourself becoming interested in it, and if you want, just come and seek me out in Seireitei. I'll help you become a Shinigami if you ever choose to become one."_

…

Sasuke sighed as he frowned in frustration. _It's been exactly a month since I've tried this Jinzen thing out, and yet I can't-._

"_Sasuke…"_

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as he felt something touch his mind, but he kept his eyes closed and continued to keep a relaxed mind and pose. _That voice… Was that…?_

"_Sasuke…"_

"_Wh-Who are you…?_" asked Sasuke mentally. _"Are you my Zanpakuto…?"_

Sasuke heard a sort of a deep chuckle that shook his mind slightly, and when the voice spoke again, Sasuke suddenly noticed that the voice was a light and masculine with an eerie echo that resounded throughout the chambers of his mind. _"Perhaps,"_ answered the voice softly. _"You've been searching for my presence for quite a while, and I think that you're finally ready to meet me…"_

Sasuke felt a grin tug on the corner of his mouth as he spoke. _"So what's your name, friend of mine…?"_

…

"_My name is Raiden-ryū, and I am your Zanpakuto."_

* * *

**Translations:**

**- Tōsan: Father.**

**- Jubantai: 10****th**** Division.**

**- Raiden-ryū: Lightning Current.**

**Follow, favorite, and review. Thank you.**


	2. A Friend from His Past

**Disclaimer:** Still the same.

**Author's Note:** Well, I was really surprised at how well the first chapter went. Thanks to everyone for leaving reviews, and I've decided to continue this story at a slow and reasonable pace. Working on two stories is my limit, so it might be hard for me to update often. Anyways, enjoy the second chapter of "The Wandering Shinobi."

**Information:**

- "_These sentences"_ means that it's a Shinigami and their Zanpakuto conversing; or rather, mental conversations.

- I'm basically going to be expanding on the time that Ichigo spent with Ganju and Kūkaku into about a month or more, but nothing serious is going to have been changed.

**Chapter 2: A Friend from His Past**

_Being the best isn't all it's made out to be. When you're strong, you become arrogant and withdrawn. Even if what you sought after was your dream._

_- Uchiha Itachi_

|North Rukongai, Soul Society|

Twirling his new Zanpakuto in his hand, Sasuke sheathed it as he stood up and stared out into the horizon. The grass seemed to dance simultaneously in a soothing rhythm as the breeze swept across the plain. Closing his eyes, Sasuke felt the cool breeze tickle his face as he took in the warmth of the sun.

_I've finally obtained a Zanpakuto…_

His Zanpakuto, which had finally "awakened," was now a regular katana with a black tsuba and a midnight blue hilt which had silver-white diamond patterns on it. The tsuba, which was a uniquely shaped one, was in the shape of a tomoe, but the curved point that was jutting out of the base was more curved inward to make it resemble a makeshift Ying and Yang symbol.

… "_What will you do now, Sasuke?"_ asked Raiden-Ryū from inside of his mind. _"You were finally able to reach out to me, but now what?"_

"_What else?"_ answered Sasuke plainly. _"I'll go wherever my instincts lead me. I have no friends, no family… I can't remember anything about my past life, and I can't remember who I was back then either… All I can do is wander these plains while searching for whatever is locked inside of my memory… Until I discover who I am, this is my life…"_

|District #60, North Rukongai, Soul Society|

"So, did you hear? Apparently the ryoka that managed to get into Soul Society broke into Seireitei not too long ago!"

"Shhh! Keep your voice down! You never know who's listening! Since we don't know what the ryoka look like, they could be anywhere! Even here!"

Sasuke frowned over his bowl of mixed rice as he listened in on the conversation from the table across from him. _The ryoka, huh…? I thought that those Shinigami would have taken care of them by now…_ Looking up from his bowl, he noticed three women staring and giggling at him from across the inn. Ignoring them, he concentrated on finishing his meal as he thought about the day's plan; however, his mind kept wandering off towards the two males at the table across from his own as they continued to discuss the situation with the ryoka.

… "Yea, well I heard that one of them _stole_ Kuchiki-sama's Shinigami powers!" said the first male in a loud whisper.

"What?!" The second male crinkled his nose at this as if he had just heard a child say something unbelievable. "No way! How the hell could he _steal_ a Shinigami's power- especially Kuchiki-sama's?"

"Don't ask me," replied his friend. "I'm just telling you what I heard! Apparently Kuchiki Byakuya-sama killed off the human, but somehow he managed to stay alive! That's why he's here! I bet he's going to get revenge on Kuchiki Byakuya-sama for having tried to kill him!"

"What?! No way!" repeated the second male. "Don't be such a dunce, moron! Even if he _did_ somehow survive his meeting with him, there's no way that he could defeat Kuchiki Byakuya-sama!"

The first male frowned as he thought about this. "Well, I guess you're right…" he relented finally, scratching the back of his head in confusion and frustration.

…

_This ryoka situation is getting to be interesting,_ thought Sasuke to himself. _First he was able to have Shinigami powers transferred to himself, then he manages to survive an encounter with the head of the Kuchiki Family, and now he's broken into Seireitei? There's no way that he could have done that all by himself…_ Sasuke felt his lips curving into a grin as he bowed his head. _Well, it looks like it could be something worth checking out…_

Having finished his meal, Sasuke got up from his chair, left the money for the food on the table, and grabbed his two weapons from the seat next to him as he headed for the door.

…

Outside of the inn, Sasuke stretched out his arms as he squinted from the bright sunlight that shone above. Hanging his two sheathed weapons on his back through the rope, Sasuke started off on the dirt road on his right as he headed off towards the nearest village exit.

_Later that night…_

Sasuke calmly whipped his katana out by his side as the Hollow fell on the ground beside him with a soft "thud," its' body gradually dematerializing the next second as it was sent back to Hueco Mundo. _Hmmm…_ Sasuke stared at his new Zanpakuto's blade with his unblinking eyes as he studied its' features. _Although the blade is a little longer than my chokutō's, I like how easily I can handle it- it's almost as if it's an extension of my arm…_

As he sheathed his sword, he tugged at his wrist warmers as he reached for his recently-obtained black side pouch that was on the ground next to him. Adjusting it around his hip, Sasuke nodded as he resumed walking towards his destination.

… As he walked alongside the edge of the forest that lay on his left, he reached out with his left hand as he walked so that the leaves of the trees gently brushed against the tips of his fingers. Along with the occasional yet mesmerizing whirlwind of leaves that seemed to dance in the moonlight, the whole entire scenery seemed like paradise in his eyes.

Sighing, Sasuke couldn't help but feel calm and relaxed as he strolled down the dirt path. _This feeling of peace… This warm feeling inside of me… I wish that this could last forever…_ His eyes suddenly widened as he caught sight of an unusual petal of a cherry blossom that seemed to float in the air in front of his eyes.

His hand flashing out, he easily trapped the single cherry blossom in his clenched hand. "A cherry blossom…" Sasuke blinked as he slightly opened his hands so that he could see the rare and beautiful blossom that was regarded by many as the most beautiful flower in all of Soul Society. "What are you doing here…? Where did you come from…?" As he continued staring at its' beauty, a single word, or name, echoed throughout his mind.

_Sakura…_

Sasuke blinked as he shook his head in confusion. _Sakura…?_ Frowning, he completely opened his hand so that the single petal flew off of his hand and joined the soft breeze in its' rhythmic dance throughout the forest.

|10th Division Barracks, Seireitei, Soul Society|

Scowling as she looked down at the stack of papers that her captain had given her to file, Rangiku walked over to the couch that sat in the captain's room and plopped down on it, sighing as she looked down at the papers with a sad glint in her eyes.

_It's been over a month since I've seen that Sasuke guy… I wonder if he's doing well… I wonder if he managed to talk with his Zanpakuto at all since I've told him about it…_ Sticking out her bottom lip in a pout, she dropped the pile of papers on the table beside her and cushioned the back of her head against her folded hands as she lay back on the couch.

"Eh, I'll just file the papers later," she mused silently to herself as she closed her eyes. "The captain said that he'd be gone for most of the day, so I have _plenty_ of time to-."

"Matsumoto…!"

Rangiku's eyes snapped open in shock as she recognized the angry and frustrated voice. "C-Captain…!" she exclaimed as she shot up from the couch. "I-I thought that you were g-gone…!"

"Well, I _did_ come back to get something that I forgot, but… it looks like you've already started slacking off, eh, Matsumoto?" replied Hitsugaya with a scowl.

"Heh heh…" chuckled the busty vice-captain nervously. "Well you see, I uh… I _was_ going to file the papers, but Kira and Hisagi suddenly came in and got me drunk! I said '_nooooo_,' but they insisted, so what could I do? After that, my head started to hurt, so I decided to just lie down and take a quick nap!"

The corner of Hitsugaya's mouth started to twitch as he slowly advanced towards his vice-captain, cracking his knuckles as he felt his face grow hot. "_MATSUMOTO_!"

Rangiku's comical shrill scream rang throughout the barracks a second later, startling the rest of the division as they looked up from their individual duties.

|District #15, North Rukongai, Soul Society|

_A few days later…_

Near the edge of the border of district #15 was a giant lake that spanned out for hundreds of feet on all four sides. Families of ducks swam along the waters, and schools of fish swam beneath the watery surface as they enjoyed the cool embrace of their home.

It was for this reason that district #15 was known as the "Village of Plenty," as no one ever went hungry here. However, there was also the dark side of the district, which was the fact that it was filled with groups of thugs and bandits that robbed the hungry and the weak. Although this district was one of the more well-abiding ones, because of the villager's well-to-do status, many thugs and bandits journeyed here in order to take advantage of the innocent and helpless villagers.

As Sasuke entered the village, he narrowed his eyes as he watched the villagers cower at the sight of him, his two weapons obviously being the reason for this. A group of thugs watched him silently as he walked across to a nearby inn, unmoving even as he entered it.

… Inside, he seemed to receive a much more welcome reception, especially from the females, but it was still quite obvious that his weapons were unwelcome here. As he walked over to an empty table for four, he unfastened his chokutō and katana from his rope belt and set it down on the chair beside him, waiting for a waitress to come and take his order.

"W-Welcome," said a timid waitress as she walked over to his table. She was a fairly skinny yet not unattractive girl that looked not much older than Sasuke himself was, and as he looked up at her, the waitress blushed furiously as she hid the bottom half of her face behind the menu that she was holding. "H-How may I take your o-order, sir?"

"I'll just have a jasmine tea," said Sasuke in a flat voice. Crossing his arms on the table, he bent slightly over as he studied the room. As the waitress left for the kitchen towards the back of the room, Sasuke took in as much information as he could about this village.

First, the room mainly housed villagers that looked like they were in the "middle class," to say in Rukongai standards. Towards the back right corner of the room, a group of five thugs were seated around a round table with waitresses around their arms, laughing as they drank saké and got drunk with each other. What caught Sasuke's attention though was the thug in the middle of the group.

He was a unique fellow who stood out above his fellow thugs. He was a male who was not much older than Sasuke himself, and he had a lean yet muscular build along with unusual straight white hair with a light-blue tint in it and strange purple eyes. When he spoke, Sasuke could see that he had equally unusual sharpened teeth that reminded him of sharks, and as for his attire, he was clad in a dark blue sleeves shirt along with matching pants and, surprisingly, dark blue open-toed sandals like Sasuke's own. Around his waist was a black belt that had a water bottle attached to it, and he carried a sheathed katana which he was holding onto by the middle.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke noticed this was no ordinary katana. The tsuba was rectangular with the long ends curving in and out like a wave, and the hilt was a deep ocean blue with blue-white diamond patterns on it. _So… He's a Shinigami as well, huh…? Or could it be that he stole a Shinigami's Zanpakuto…?_

"H-Here's your jasmine t-tea, sir…!"

Sasuke looked up to see the waitress standing next to his table, his tea on a tray. "Oh, thanks," he said as he accepted the tea from her.

Her face turning bright red, she bowed hurriedly and rushed off towards the back kitchen with a squeak of delight. Blowing into his tea, Sasuke took a small sip as he closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of the drink as it flowed throughout his body.

As he stared down at the light brown tea in deep though, he was startled by a scream that came from the back corner of the room. Looking up, he saw a waitress slap one of the thugs as he tried to grope her, her face bright red as she slowly back away from the table.

Growling in anger, the thug slowly stood up as the rest of his group laughed at his humiliation. Grabbing onto the girl's arm, he struck her across the face, knocking her down onto the floor. "You're really gonna regret that, woman!" he growled as he yanked on her arm, pulling her up off of the floor. "If you try to struggle again, I'll beat the living crap out of you!"

As the waitress tried to struggle against his grip, the room suddenly grew silent as Sasuke got up from the table, grabbing his katana as he walked towards the table of thugs. When he reached the table, he stood a foot away from the thug that held the poor waitress in his grip, his unblinking eyes boring into him.

"Well, what do _you_ want, punk?" asked the thug rudely. "Beat it before I beat the snot out of you!"

As he was about to resume groping the waitress, Sasuke reached out and grabbed the thug by his forearm, stopping him. "Let her go," he ordered the thug, his voice quiet yet deadly.

"Oh?" The thug grinned as he spit on the floor in front of Sasuke's feet. "And what if I don't?"

…

The thug's eyes widened as Sasuke's grip on his forearm grew tighter. Soon he was forced to let go of the girl because of the intense pressure on his forearm, and he struggled not to cry out as he grimaced in pain.

Once Sasuke let go of his arm, he scowled as he rubbed his forearm, a red and purple bruise marking the spot where Sasuke's grip had been. Looking up at Sasuke furiously, he drew back his arm as he prepared to deliver a punch to Sasuke's face. "Why you little-!"

THUD! The thug went flying into the wall as Sasuke kicked him square in the chest, a spider web of cracks running up the wall all the way up to the ceiling. The other thugs looked at Sasuke in surprise, especially the white-haired one.

"Ugh…" The thug's eyes rolled towards the back of his head as his head dropped to the side, blacking out.

…

"Get him!" yelled one of the other thugs as he jumped up out of his chair, unsheathing his small knife as he prepared to leap at Sasuke.

"Wait!"

The thug stopped as he turned to look at his white-haired comrade in surprise. "Wh-What are you saying, boss? We should beat the crap out of this guy for-!" He suddenly stopped talking as the gang leader tilted his head to look at him, a wicked smile stretching across his face as he showed off his pointed teeth. "F-For…" he stuttered nervously.

"I said… to wait… didn't I…?" asked the white-haired figure sweetly, his eyes squeezing shut as he gave his subordinate a big grin. "So why… are you questioning… my order…?"

Gulping, the thug straightened up as he quickly sheathed his knife, bowing low in apology to his boss. "M-My apologies, boss! It'll never happen again!"

As they conversed, Sasuke took a bag of yen from the unconscious bandit's belt and handed it to the waitress that was being groped. "Here," he said as he gave the money to her. "This should be enough to cover for the damage as well as the assault."

Blushing as she looked up into Sasuke's piercing gaze, she stammered her thanks as she quickly bowed and rushed off towards the back of the room.

"Oy oy oy!"

Sasuke blinked as he turned around to face the gang leader, still holding his sheathed katana in his hand by its' scabbard. "What?" he asked blankly.

"What do you think you're doing, giving away Riga's money away like that!" scowled the white-haired thug as he spun his sheathed katana with his hand. "Maybe he was wrong to assault the woman, but you're the one that started the fight, not to mention the one that caused the damage! Do you know how hard he worked to steal all of that money?!"

Sasuke sighed quietly as he unsheathed his katana by a crack by pushing up at the tsuba with his thumb. "He's the one that started the fight… I'm just the only one in this room that wasn't afraid to do something about him… This is an inn, not a bar. If you want to start trouble with women, go somewhere else… Now beat it."

The waitresses who were quietly standing in the back of the room sighed dreamily as they stared longingly after Sasuke as he turned around and walked back to his table.

"Wait a minute," said the white-haired figure, stopping him. "What's your name, stranger?"

…

"Uchiha Sasuke."

…

"Hōzuki Suigetsu," said the gang leader with a grin. "It's nice to make your acquaintance, Sasuke."

"Heh…" Sasuke turned back around and continued walking back to his table, ignoring the rest of the room as they continued to remain silent. It was only when both Sasuke and Suigetsu sat back down that the restaurant came back alive.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Sasuke sat on top of a large boulder with his legs dangling off of the edge as he went through what he had learned that day.

From a different inn that he had gone to, he had learned about various things of little importance such as the new reformation of some districts in South Rukongai as well as the newly-appointed village leader that had stepped up in place of the one who had been killed just recently.

He had also learned that the man who he had encountered back at the first tavern, Hōzuki Suigetsu, was the leader of the biggest gang of district #15 that numbered up to three hundred. He was "in charge" of districts #15 to 20, and he had various thugs and bandits stationed in each district to bring in supplies and keep order in the areas in case any other gang tried to take over those said areas. As Sasuke had guessed, he wasn't a Shinigami. He had actually taken an Asauchi from a random Shinigami like Sasuke himself over three years ago, and he had managed to "awaken" it only just a year ago according to one of his men.

He was the undisputed leader of the six districts, and as he did no real harm to any of the villagers, the Gotei 13 hadn't done anything about him or his gang; in fact, according to one of his men who Sasuke had managed to meet up with, the Gotei 13 paid him each year in order to maintain the peace throughout those six areas.

The most interesting thing that he had learned that day, however, was that although the ryoka had managed to break into Seireitei through the White Road Gate, their attempts to enter Seireitei had been foiled by the sanbantai-taichou, Ichimaru Gin. Their current whereabouts was currently unknown, but Sasuke knew for a fact that they would still be near the White Road Gate in one of the first few West Rukongai districts, and that's where he decided the head to.

… As he walked down the dirt road path that led out of the district and towards West Rukongai, Sasuke sensed something strange and stopped. Glancing behind him out of the corner of his eyes, he gripped the hilt of his katana.

"Come out of there," he ordered.

…

"Hahaha, alright, you got me!" said a familiar voice from behind a tree. "Still, I'm surprised that you were able to sense me so easily, but then again, I've never really been good at hiding my presence…"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he recognized the voice. "That voice…"

The figure walked out from behind the tree, revealing himself to be Suigetsu. He also had ten comrades with him, who all appeared out from the shadows of the forest as their leader appeared from behind the tree. He walked towards Sasuke until he was around ten feet away from him, and he stretched out his arms to show that he was unarmed. "Don't worry, Sasuke," he grinned. "I didn't come here to fight or cause any trouble…"

Unsheathing his katana halfway from its' sheath, Sasuke scoffed lightly as he turned around to face the gang leader and his men. "What are _you_ doing here…?"

"Now now, just hear me out," said Suigetsu in a polite voice. "I just had a proposition for you."

…

"Talk," relented Sasuke as he sheathed his sword. "You have ten seconds. Go."

Sighing, Suigetsu scratched the back of his head as he looked up at the blood red sky. "How would you like to… join my little organization?"

Sasuke seemed to be amused by this as he chuckled softly. "Me… join _you_? Where on Earth did you get such an idea…?"

Seemingly hurt by the remark, the gang leader frowned as he looked down at the ground questioningly. "Uh… Well, I did _not_ expect that answer… Uh…" Turning his head to look at his group, he snapped his fingers at them repeatedly. "Come on guys, help me out here! Give Sasuke some reasons to join us!"

"Oh oh oh! I know!" said one thug excitedly. "We have great benefits! Like, like… we can do anything that we want!"

The rest of the group nodded furiously with their comrade. "Yea!" agreed another. "And the heads of the gang hang out in this great lounge!"

"_And_ we also get to buy whatever the hell we want, and if we can't, we can just steal it!"

Suigetsu frowned comically at his minions and the unhelpful reasons that they gave out. "Yea… Yea, thanks a lot…" he muttered under his breath.

…

Sasuke stared at the group blankly, his narrowed unblinking eyes studying the group as to see if they were being serious or not.

"Well…" Suigetsu chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head again. "Yea, those are… crappy reasons, I know, but I think that you're someone who could be invaluable to us, Sasuke. You could-."

"No thanks," replied Sasuke abruptly. Turning around, he continued on his path, leaving Suigetsu and his men standing in the middle of the dirt path. "I don't do groups."

Suigetsu narrowed his eyes as he watched Sasuke walk away, unmoving even as his men stared at him questioningly as to what they were supposed to do next.

|District #5, West Rukongai, Soul Society|

It took Sasuke only a single day of straight running in order to reach district #5 of rest Rukongai. As West Rukongai was right on the lower left side of North Rukongai, all Sasuke had to do was cut across district #15 and enter district #10 in West Rukongai. From there, the only thing that was left was to run straight on to district #5. Luckily for Sasuke, the districts in West Rukongai were much smaller than the districts in North Rukongai.

… As Sasuke entered the fairly cramped village, he noticed right off the bat that it was unlike any of the other regions that he had been in. Although the same structure, the people seemed friendlier than normal, and the overall atmosphere was much more mellow and welcoming. There were fish markets, water stands, and even an occasional food stand that served all kinds of different food.

Ordering a rare yet expensive soft drink from a drink stand, Sasuke took a sip from the cool can and calmly observed the gigantic structure that stood miles away from the village- Seireitei, the home of the Gotei 13.

It was a place that many would have given anything to get into- a place of wealth, dignity, and power. As much of an awe-inspiring sight as it was, its' refined beauty held no place in Sasuke's eyes as he stared blankly at it. The only thing on his mind was the thought of whether or not he would run into the ryoka in this wide and spacious region. Although he was able to narrow down the places that they might be hiding out at, he still had absolutely no idea what any of them looked like.

_Hmmm…_ Sasuke frowned as he watched the sun slowly sink into the horizon, its' rays coloring the clouds in bright streaks of orange and red. _The ryoka could disappear at any time… At this rate, I'll never be able to find them…_ His frown grew even more distinct as he took another sip of his drink, obviously disliking the cool sweet taste of the soft drink. _I shouldn't have bought this… Sweet things don't sit well with my taste apparently…_

Looking down as he felt something tug on the bottom of his pants, he saw a young girl of no more than ten years of age looking up at him with sad, wide eyes that pleaded for something to satisfy her hunger or thirst. Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he noticed her starved and fragile body. _This girl… In Soul Society one isn't supposed to feel hunger, and yet…_ His gaze softening, Sasuke walked over to a nearby food stand and ordered some dumplings and dango. Bending down, he looked the young girl straight in the eyes and handed her the food and what was left of his soft drink, giving her an encouraging smile as she hesitated for a moment.

"Go on, take it," he said in a quiet and gentle tone. "It's alright."

Her thin arms shakily grabbing the food and drink, she looked down at the banquet in her hands and looked back up at Sasuke, her eyes wide as she gave him a quick bow in thanks. "Th-Thank you, s-sir," she whispered in a weak voice.

Patting her gently on the top of her head, Sasuke gave her a sad smile and stood back up, looking towards the direction of the exit of the village as the little girl scampered off with the food and drink. _Well, I might as well get going… I have a little chance of running into the ryoka, so I should just look for any unusual things near the entrance of Seireitei._

Nodding slightly in confirmation, Sasuke started off towards the west border of Seireitei.

|Near the Border of the White Road Gate, Seireitei, Soul Society|

_Later that night…_

As he walked near the inside edge of the forest, Sasuke suddenly looked up and grabbed the hilt of his katana as he heard some noise coming from the underbrush near his right. As a squirrel scampered out from it, he relaxed and get go of the hilt, resuming his walk as he looked around for any unusual things that might help him find the whereabouts of the ryoka.

_Hmmm… _As he continued walking, he noticed some lights coming from a clearing not five hundred feet from where he was at. _Lights…?_ he wondered. _Why would there be lights in such a random location near the edge of the forest…?_ Curious as to what it might be, Sasuke decided to take a closer took and headed for the source of the lights.

… Once he arrived near the illuminated clearing, he noticed a peculiarly-built house that sort of resembled a miniature palace. Although it was old and fairly rusty, it still held a dignified and noble aura around it. Two giant stone arms stood on either side of the house, the open hands laid out as if to resemble some kind of makeshift platter. The banner that hung above the house said, "Kūkaku's Palace."

_Kūkaku…? Even though it's a shabby structure, it's definitely a nobleman's living quarters… I wonder what a member of a noble family is doing here… It looks like something worth checking out._

"Hey you, stop!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he spun around, barely drawing his Zanpakuto in time to block the sudden attack. As the two blades clashed together, Sasuke found himself looking at a young teenage boy with unusual orange hair and brown eyes. He was wearing the black kimono-like robe that Shinigami wore, and he wielded a large oversized khyber knife which was almost as tall as Sasuke was himself.

_I dropped my guard for a split second…_ Sasuke frowned slightly as he stared into the stranger's eyes. _This kid… Could he be… one of the ryoka…? No, that's impossible… The ryoka that I heard about lost his Shinigami powers from a supposedly fatal attack from that head of the Kuchiki family… There's no way that he could've…_

"Just who the hell do you think you are?!" spat the sudden stranger angrily. "Why are you creeping around here in the middle of the night?!"

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke easily pushed his attacker off of him with little effort and stepped back, studying him as the orange-haired teen skidded to a halt. _His reiryoku level is impressive, but that's about it… If he __**was**__ a ryoka, he wouldn't last more than a minute in Seireitei, literally…_

"Who are you, Shinigami?" asked Sasuke coolly as he unsheathed his chokutō as well.

…

"Who, me?" The orange-haired figure grinned as he took up a fighting stance, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, the guy who's going to crush you!"

_Heh..._ Sasuke chuckled quietly to himself as he held both of his weapons out by his side, his body relaxed yet battle-ready at the same time. _This should be amusing..._

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Make sure to leave reviews if you liked or disliked anything. Thank you.**


	3. A Chance Meeting: Sasuke vs Ichigo!

**Disclaimer:** Always the same.

**Author's Note:** I'll be updating once every 3 – 4 weeks from now on. Sorry but I have work and classes, so I'm pretty busy most of the time. Also, this chapter might be… not as good as the previous ones. I was just out of it all week, but I didn't want to leave anyone hanging from Sasuke's meeting with Ichigo, so I just decided to try my best to write it out. Hopefully it's not as bad as I thought it was.

Leave a review if you found something you liked or disliked about the chapter.

**Chapter 3: A Chance Meeting: Sasuke vs Ichigo!**

"I see…" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the Shinigami's sudden proclaim. "You're going to crush me? Well, why don't you come and try it then?"

Grimacing at his arrogant tone, Ichigo, the orange-haired figure, gripped the hilt of his sword even tighter as he rushed at the Uchiha, his sword held out in front of him. "Oh, I'll try it alright, pretty boy!" Jumping high up into the air, he swung down at Sasuke with full strength, the force of the attack causing the ground to crack as Sasuke blocked the attack.

"Heh…" Sasuke didn't even blink as he easily blocked the attack single-handedly. "I don't need two arms to block an attack from a weakling like you." Pushing the weight of the sword off of him with a single arm, he took his chokutō in his left hand and swung it at Ichigo with an almost lazy movement.

"Wh-What the-!" Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise as he was sent flying back by Sasuke's attack. _S-Such strength…! This guy's definitely no ordinary Shinigami! His level is too-!_ He blinked as he suddenly noticed Sasuke's absence. _Wh-Where the hell did he-?!_

"Behind you."

Ichigo's head snapped around as he turned to see Sasuke flickering into view behind him. "H-How did you-?!" Raising his sword as the blade of Sasuke's katana sped towards his face, he was barely able to block the attack in time as the edge of the blade stopped a centimeter away from his nose. _Sh-Shit…! This guy….!_ Narrowing his eyes, he pushed Sasuke away from him with a roar, releasing a massive amount of reiatsu from the edge of his blade in the process.

As Sasuke went flying through the air, spinning and holding his chokutō in reverse grip, he stabbed it into the ground as he skid to a halt. Right as his foot touched the ground, he used flash step to flicker over behind Ichigo and swept his katana at his legs in an attempt to cleave them in half.

Seeing this, Ichigo was barely able to jump up in time to dodge the attack, but the tip of Sasuke's blade still managed to graze the ends of his straw sandals, which were also called waraji. _Che!_ Narrowing his eyes, Ichigo spun around in mid-air and stabbed down at Sasuke with his Zanpakuto.

His eyes widened again for what seemed like the hundredth time that day as he saw that the place that Sasuke was just at was now empty. _S-Such terrifying speed…! He-!_ THUD! Ichigo yelled out loud as he suddenly went crashing into a nearby tree over five feet away, causing dirt and rubble to go flying everywhere.

"Heh…" Sasuke grinned from his spot, his leg still drawn back from the kick. "So this is all that a Shinigami can do, huh…? The Gotei 13 is sure full of weaklings…" Straightening up as he planted his foot on the ground, he watched calmly as Ichigo struggled to get up from the attack. "So you can still move…? Pathetic." As Ichigo cracked his back as he straightened up, Sasuke took a step forward. "Let me ask you this, Shinigami… Who are you…?"

"Wh-Who am I…?" Ichigo grinned and he scoffed at the Uchiha; as he took a wobbling step forward, he spat out a glob of blood, frowning as he prod a loose tooth with his tongue. "Huh, it looks like that branch my jaw smashed into was a lot sturdier than I thought." Blinking, he turned his gaze back to Sasuke as if he had forgotten that he was even there. "Oh yea, you asked me a question, didn't you? Well, I'm not part of the Gotei 13 if that's what you were thinking. I guess that you could call me a Shinigami-daikou. Well, that's what Rukia said that I was anyways."

… "A Shinigami… daikou…?" repeated Sasuke. Suddenly grinning, he chuckled quietly as he sheathed his chokutō, left with only his Zanpakuto in his hand. "And Rukia…? Kuchiki Rukia, was it?"

Ichigo seemed surprised by this. "Uh, yea… it was. How do you know who Rukia is…?"

Sasuke ceased chuckling as he surprisingly sheathed his Zanpakuto. "You don't know the noble family either… I get it now… _You're_ the ryoka, aren't you…?"

"And if I am?" replied Ichigo through narrowed eyes.

…

Spinning around right as he flash stepped to Ichigo's side, Sasuke used a spin to augment his speed and slammed his foot into him, his heel digging into his side. As Ichigo's eyes widened to the point where he felt like they were going to pop out of his head, he let out a loud yell/roar of pain as he rocketed over fifteen feet away.

Sasuke watched motionlessly as Ichigo crashed _through_ a small boulder-like rock and disappeared into a group of bushes. _Well, so much for the revived Shinigami-daikou,_ he thought as he lazily walked to the spot where Ichigo disappeared at, his hands stuffed into his pockets.

… When he walked through the bushes, he found himself at the clearing where the "palace" of the Kūkaku person was. _Oh? So our little fight ended us up here…_ Frowning, he looked down as he felt his foot touch an object. The object, which was Ichigo, was lying on the ground, breathing heavily as he struggled not to lose consciousness. His Zanpakuto was lying on the ground a foot away from where he was.

_N-No…! Dammit…!_ cursed Ichigo mentally as he clenched his hands into tight fists. _I won't… lose… to this guy…! No way… NO WAY…!_ As he slowly got onto all fours, he coughed up a bunch of blood as he felt his vision blur. "I can't-." Ichigo screamed out loud as Sasuke stepped down on his back, causing him to drop back down on the ground.

"Don't try to get up," said Sasuke quietly as he looked down at the defeated Shinigami. "How pathetic… And you really planned on rescuing your friend like that? How stupid." Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke pressed down even harder on Ichigo's back, causing his eyes to widen even further as he gasped for breath. "Stop holding back… Use your Zanpakuto's ability… unless you want to die."

As Ichigo gasped for breath, he swore silently to himself as he felt his vision dim even further. "D-Don't fuck w-with me…! H-How… would you k-know whether I-I'm holding b-back or n-not…?" He let out a hoarse scream as Sasuke pushed down even further with his foot, and he struggled to breathe as he left his lower right rib crack from the pressure.

Lifting his foot off of Ichigo a moment later, Sasuke stepped back around ten feet away from him as he took hand out of his pocket and grabbed the hilt of his katana. "Don't worry, Shinigami-daikou… You-."

"Hadō #33: Sōkatsui!"

Sasuke jumped to his right as a large wave of bright blue flame-like energy flashed at the spot where he was just at, completely obliterating the ground as it made contact with it. Narrowing his eyes, he studied the aftermath of the attack as he landed on the branch of a tree. _That attack… _Unsheathing his katana, he looked toward his right as his eyes found the source of the attack.

There, standing at the edge of the clearing, was a fairly well-endowed woman with long and messy black hair and green eyes. She was wearing a very exposing red robe as well as a white skirt with a long slit down the side of it, and her right arm, which was missing, was replaced with a wooden arm that she was somehow able to control as if it was real.

"Ah, who have we here?" asked the woman in a loud voice. "It seems that I have a visitor! Well, ever since _these_- she jerked her head towards Ichigo's almost unconscious body- pieces of trash showed up at my palace, it's been one trouble after another, so I can't say that I'm surprised." As her eyes studied Sasuke's handsome features, she gave him a dangerous yet flirtatious smile. "So what do I call you, rookie?"

Leaping down from the tree, Sasuke landed on one knee as his feet touched the ground. Looking up at her, he calmly observed and studied his new opponent before saying anything. "Uchiha Sasuke," he said finally.

"Shiba Kūkaku," said to woman, introducing herself. "This is _my_ property that you're on right now, so spit it out, Uchiha Sasuke. Why are you here?"

Straightening up, Sasuke looked up at the moon in the sky as he held his katana loosely by his side. "I was simply… _observing_ the scenery here when your little friend over here- he glanced at Ichigo out of the corner of his eyes before turning his gaze to her- attacked me."

"I see…" Walking over to Ichigo, who was still on the ground, she kicked at him until she heard a faint groan from him. "Come on, you're still breathing, aren't you? Get up, Ichigo."

As Ichigo tried to get up, he fell back down on the ground with yet another groan not a moment later. Sighing in exasperation, Kūkaku frowned as she bent down and picked Ichigo up by the collar of his robe. "Geez, what a waste of space…" she muttered as she slung the unconscious Shinigami over her shoulder. Turning at face Sasuke, she gave him a salute as she turned around and started to walk back towards her home. "Anyways, see you later for now, Uchiha Sasuke!" she called out. "Sorry, but this piece of crap can't die just yet! Don't worry though- you'll be able to fight him again very soon!"

…

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the two leave, unmoving even as the pair disappeared into the house.

|District #5, West Rukongai, Seireitei|

_One week later…_

Sasuke looked over at the gathering crowd curiously as they flocked around a nearby inn. Pushing through the crowd, he found a bulletin pinned on the wall of the building.

_Attention all residents of the four Rukongai regions. The Global Divisional_

_Tournament that is held once every ten years will be taking place in_

_District #1 of West Rukongai in approximetly one week from the date_

_posted above. If you wish to become the grand victor and_

_gain the opportunity to become a Shinigami_

_in one of the thirteen divisions the Gotei 13, then please feel free_

_to apply for the tournament at any time before the deadline. All applications_

_will be rejected once the deadline, which is approximetly an_

_hour before noon, is reached. Thank you._

…

_Hmmm…_ Sasuke frowned as he looked away from the bulletin. He turned around and weaved his way through the crowed until he came back out into the open. _So, a global tournament, huh? How boring…_

"Sasuke?"

Looking up at the sound of the familiar voice, Sasuke turned around to see Suigetsu standing behind him, the blade of his sheathed Zanpakuto resting against his shoulder and the leader of the gang all alone for the first time since their meeting.

Sasuke blinked, his face immobile as he studied the gang leader. "Suigetsu, was it?"

Suigetsu seemed to brighten up at this. "Oh, so you remember me after all, huh? I'm surprised. I would've figured that your type forgot about things that didn't really matter much."

"Oh?" Although seemingly amused by this, Sasuke ignored him and walked into the inn that he was just in front of, sitting down at a nearby table for two. Suigetsu, who had followed him, sat down in the remaining seat across from him.

Sasuke stared blankly at him, his eyes unblinking. "What do you think you're doing…?"

"Ah ah ah!" Suigetsu turned his head to face a waitress at a nearby table and motioned at her, ignoring Sasuke's question. Turning back to face the table, he picked up a menu and glanced over it. "Now, let's see… What should I get?"

The waitress that Suigetsu had motioned to approached the table and bowed low, her eyes struggling not to stare too much at Sasuke. "H-How may I help you? Have you d-decided on a dish yet?"

"_Ah_, why hello there, sweetie!" laughed Suigetsu joyously as he gave her a big grin. "Yea, yea I have! I'll have the fried pork rice house special if you don't mind!" He then turned to look at Sasuke. "Oy, Sasuke, get whatever you want from the menu. It's on me!"

Sasuke briefly glanced down at the menu before looking back up. "I'll have the oolong tea, thanks."

"What, that's all?" inquired Suigetsu in a slightly disappointed tone as the waitress left the table. "You don't have to pick something cheap off of the menu just because I'm paying you know."

…

"So… What's this all about?" asked Sasuke finally. "Why are you here? I thought that your little group's influence only stretched from district #15 to 20 in North Rukongai."

"Huh?" Suigetsu looked up at the ceiling as he scratched the back of his head in deep thought. "Hmmm… Well, I thought that it'd be pretty obvious. I'm here to join the Global Divisional Tournament of course! Why else would anyone who's anyone be here?"

Blinking once, Sasuke thought back to the bulletin that he had seen just a few moments ago. "You're joining a petty tournament like that? You really must have nothing to do back in North Rukongai."

"A petty tournament?" repeated Suigetsu in a dumfounded tone. "You must really know nothing about these parts, huh? The Global Divisional Tournament might not sound so fancy, but it's actually the biggest tournament held in all of Soul Society! All of the strongest guys throughout Soul Society gather here in order to fight in the tournament and win the grand prize."

"The grand prize?" echoed Sasuke. "What's this grand prize?"

Suigetsu leaned forward on the table, giving Sasuke a huge grin. "5,000,000 Kan as well as an automatic entry into one of the Gotei 13 divisions. A prize like no other, am I right?"

Sasuke looked up as the waitress returned with their order. Accepting his oolong tea, he blew into the mug as he looked up at Suigetsu. "I'm not interested in money."

Sighing in exasperation, Suigetsu ate a spoonful of his fried rice and frowned as he chewed. "You're hard to get, you know that, Sasuke? I gotta admit, I'm-."

"But then again," continued Sasuke as he ignored Suigetsu, "a tournament full of strong opponents, huh…? It could be a good place to test my strength…"

Slapping both hands on the table, Suigetsu laughed out loud and accidentally choked on a mouthful of rice. As he tried to hack it out through coughing, his face turned deep blue as he struggled not to black out from choking. Everyone in the inn turned their heads and watched as he repeatedly slapped his hand on the table as he tried to couch out the rice.

…

Once he finally managed to hack out all the rice from his throat, he took a deep breath as his face regained its normal hue. "O-Ok," he gasped finally. "Anyways, where was I…? Oh, right. So, what do you say, Sasuke? Are you going to enter the tournament?"

…

"Hmmm…" Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he rested his chin on his folded hands. _The tournament, huh…? I could care less about the prize money, and as for joining the Gotei 13… Well, I never planned on doing that anyways regardless of the situation… Still, I'll admit that this whole entire tournament sounds intriguing…_ Blinking once, he looked up at Suigetsu with only his eyes and gave him a small grin.

"Why not?"

_Three days later…_

As Sasuke and Suigetsu traveled down the dirt path towards district #1, Sasuke glanced at his new companion out of the corner of his eyes, watching him take a large sip of water from his water bottle. Suigetsu noticed this and frowned at him as he continued to slurp through the straw. "What?"

…

"Nothing," replied Sasuke dully as he cast his eyes back to the front.

His frown growing even more distinct, Suigetsu sighed loudly as he struck his water bottle back in his belt. "I need water to hydrate myself," he explained as he leaned his head back against his intertwined hands. "I get dehydrated very easily you know."

"I see…" Sasuke grew silent as he began to think about the tournament that was just a single day ahead of them. "So, this tournament… I'm assuming that you've participated in it before?"

Nodding in affirmative, Suigetsu stared up at the sky as he answered. "Yea, about twenty years ago before the last tournament… Let me tell you, Sasuke. You seem like a pretty strong guy, but at this tournament… It's mostly made up of thugs and unbelievably powerful guys who have zero interest in joining the Gotei 13; to them, it's all about the prize money and proving their strength to the world."

"Strong…?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at this. "How strong?"

Suigetsu scratched his chin as he thought about this. "Hmmm… Well, let's see… The last time I fought in the tournament, I got beat down completely. I was able to make it to the final rounds, but the guys there were too strong for me to handle." He turned to look at Sasuke as they walked. "They might be at your level… maybe. Some of them even have Zanpakuto that they managed to steal from other Shinigami, and others are former Shinigami that are trying to reenter the Gotei 13. But still… you should be able to handle them… probably."

"Hm…" Sasuke suddenly stopped at an edge of a downwards slope, looking down at the village that lay at the bottom of the hill. "We're here… district #1 of West Rukongai."

"Huh," sniffed Suigetsu. "Nice village. Much nicer than district #15 anyways… So this is where the tournament's gonna be held, huh?"

Sasuke turned to him, a slight frown on his face. "The tournament location changes every year?"

Suigetsu nodded in affirmative, crossing his arms as he stared down at the large and well-to-do village. "The last tournament that I was at was held in district #3 of South Rukongai, and I heard that the last tournament ten years ago was actually held in Seireitei."

"Hm…" Sasuke suddenly blinked as he noticed something strange. "Wait a second… I don't notice any place that could remotely house enough people for a big tournament like this…"

Suigetsu tapped him on the shoulder as he pointed to the right side that was outside of the border of the village. "This village is just one of the three large villages that makes up district #1, remember? The tournament is over _there_."

Sasuke's eyes travelled to the place where Suigetsu was pointing at, and his eyes slightly widened as he saw what his companion was talking about.

Outside of the village, where there was just an empty space that stretched for miles, was a gigantic white dome that sat just a couple hundred feet from the village edge. It was hard to believe that he hadn't been able to spot it, and the dome, which was over three hundred feet high and probably over a hundred thousand square feet, wasn't really fancy but more impressive in a way.

"Why would Seireitei put a large structure like that near the edge of a village?" asked Sasuke curiously. "How strange…"

Suigetsu raised a finger as he answered this, an intelligent look coming onto his face. "Well, I can answer that for you! You see, this was the dome where Seireitei held a number of tournaments and brutal gladiator fights in the past over five hundred years ago. Although they've obviously stopped the gladiator fights, they decided to still use the dome for-." He suddenly blinked as he realized that Sasuke had gone ahead of him and towards the large dome.

"Hey, wait for me, Sasuke!" he called out as he sped towards his companion. "The tournament's still not for another twelve or so hours!"

* * *

Later than night, Sasuke looked up at the clouds of the night sky from his spot on the tree, his feet dangling from the edge of the branch that he was sitting on. Suigetsu, who was sitting on the grass below, looked up at him as he sipped on his water bottle.

"So, Sasuke," he started. "It's tomorrow… The tournament, I mean."

…

"Are you nervous?" inquired Suigetsu curiously. "You seem quite calm for someone who's about to enter a tournament full of some of the toughest people in all of Soul Society."

Sasuke scoffed lightly from his position on the branch. "And what about you?"

Suigetsu laughed out loud at this. "Hahahaha, you got me. Well, it's my second tournament, so I-." He suddenly stopped talking as he noticed a rustling noise coming from the underbrush a few feet away from them. "What was that noise?" he asked as he grabbed his Zanpakuto from his side. Getting up onto his feet, he narrowed his eyes as he drew his blade halfway from its sheath. "Who's there?"

The rustling noise grew even louder, and then suddenly, it stopped. Suigetsu tilted his head to the side as he stared at the spot in the underbrush curiously. "What in the world…?"

"Well well well, if it isn't Suigetsu!" called a voice from behind the underbrush. The voice was high and slightly annoying with a hint of cockiness and attitude in it. "I didn't expect _you_ to be here after how you were humiliated twenty years ago!"

Suigetsu's narrowed eyes grew into narrow slits as he glared at the source of the voice. "That voice…"

As the owner of the voice stepped out into the moonlight, Sasuke saw that it was a young woman of no more than eighteen years speaking in human age standards. She had distinctive red hair and crimson eyes, and the left side of her hair was unkempt and messy while the right side was straight and neatly kept. As her face came into view, Sasuke saw her nose wrinkle in disgust as her eyes met Suigetsu's, looking at him as if he was some kind of flea-ridden dog.

"Karin…" growled Suigetsu in annoyance. "Just what the hell are _you_ doing here?"

Karin laughed out loud as she raised her hand and snapped her fingers, the loud snapping sound echoing throughout the clearing. A second later, three fit guys with mean and arrogant looks on their faces walked out from the underbrush, snarling at Suigetsu as they saw him.

"Oh, so you brought your dogs along as well, did you?" asked Suigetsu in a joking tone. "Nice to see that they're still as loyal to their master as ever. Are they still pissed from the last time I kicked their asses?"

This seemed to anger the three thugs, but as one of them took a step forward to teach Suigetsu a lesson, Karin stuck her arm out in front of him, stopping him. As she glared at him, she rolled her neck as her face twisted into a scowl. "Suigetsu, you… Heh, funny hearing that from a guy with such a disgusting reiatsu…"

Suigetsu seemed ticked off by this, and he scowled comically at her as he slammed his foot down on the ground. "Karin, you son of a-!"

"Suigetsu, stop."

Suigetsu flinched at Sasuke's voice and spun around to face him with a surprised look on his face. "S-Sasuke…? What are you…?"

Jumping down from the branch, Sasuke landed on the ground below in a crouched position and looked up to face Suigetsu and Karin. "Don't waste your time arguing with them," he said as he walked up to his companion's side. "We have a tournament tomorrow, or did you forget?"

…

"Wh-Wha- at…?" stuttered Karin, her eyes growing wide as her face turned the same color as her hair. "Wh-Who… i-is… h-he…?" As her face turned bright red, her jaw dropped as she stared at Sasuke's face. _H-He's so… HOT!_

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he noticed Karin staring at him, and he simply blinked in response as he spun around to leave. "Come on, Suigetsu," he said as he walked towards the dirt path that lay on the right side of the clearing. "Let's go."

"Oh, uh… r-right…! Wait up for me, Sasuke!" Giving Karin and her three subordinates one last mocking grin, he turned around and ran after Sasuke, not giving the four a second glance back.

Karin stared longingly after Sasuke with a bright glint in her eyes. Pushing her glasses up with a finger, she sighed dreamily as she took in the lingering scent of Sasuke through her nose with a deep intake of breath.

_Sasuke, huh…?_

|The Grand Spirit Dome, West Rukongai, Soul Society|

_The next day…_

"**On behalf of Seireitei, welcome to the Grand Spirit Dome all old and new applicants! To register for the tournament, please line up in a single file line towards the right of the lobby! Again, to register for the tournament, please line up in a single file line towards the right of the lobby! Thank you, and good luck!"**

Sasuke looked up as the announcement sounded overhead. As he and Suigetsu reached the line, he noticed that it wasn't as long as he had thought it would be. _We must be late,_ he said to himself as they lined up with the rest of the applicants. Turning to Suigetsu, he simply gave him a dead look as he spoke.

"You woke up too late."

Suigetsu sighed in annoyance as he stretched out his arms. "So what? Geez, you're so unlikable in the morning…"

Chuckling amusedly at this, Sasuke turned his attention to the front as they reached the front of the line. "Uchiha Sasuke and Hōzuki Suigetsu," he said to the woman behind the table.

After sorting through some documents and getting their signatures on both of their applications, they each received a number and were pointed off to a single pair of double doors that lay on the far right side of the spacious lobby.

…

As they opened and walked past the double doors and into the room, Sasuke was surprised to see a large group of applicants in the room that numbered up to three hundred.

_There's a lot of applicants here, _thought Sasuke to himself as he glanced around the room. _With this much people, it would take at least a week to reach the final rounds… This must mean that there's going to be a preliminary round where they crop out all of the weak applicants…_ Sasuke shook off his thoughts as he noticed quite a few females that were scattered throughout the room staring at him with a flirtatious glint in their eyes.

Frowning at this, he turned around and leaned back against the wall next to the door with his arms crossed. As Suigetsu turned to talk to him, they were suddenly disturbed by a group of guys and girls approaching them, the group headed by a slightly tall and slender yet fairly muscular male with long and shaggy black hair as well as dead ash grey eyes.

As the group reached the two individuals, the leader figure grinned a grin that told Sasuke that this was a guy who had no heart. No heart, no sentiment, and no emotions save his thirst for blood and battles. He didn't hold the slightest feeling for anyone whatsoever, and all he lived for was fights and destruction. That's who this person was.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he felt a powerful wave of dense and heavy black reiatsu flood across the room. The individual's reiatsu was so powerful that fifteen of the applicants fainted right on the spot, and many more were forced onto their knees as they struggled to breathe under the intense pressure of the individual's reiatsu.

_Well, at least that takes care of the weaklings,_ said Sasuke to himself, his face showing no expression whatsoever as he looked the figure in the eye.

"Well, you're a new face, aren't you?" inquired the black-haired figure as he looked Sasuke in the eye. "It seems like Suigetsu found a new friend, am I right?" He looked at Suigetsu as he said this, and the latter blanched in fear as he unconsciously took a step back.

…

"Well, I look forward to seeing you in the tournament," said the individual in a rough yet silky voice. Giving the two a final bloodthirsty grin, the figure winked at Sasuke and stepped back, turning around and melding back into the crowd of tourney applicants.

Sasuke turned to look at a slightly pale Suigetsu, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at him curiously. "What's wrong with you?"

Suigetsu seemed shocked by this. "Y-You don't know who that guy is…? Even if you've never been in a tournament before, I would have expected for you to know about _him_…"

"Well…?"

Frowning, Sasuke's companion narrowed his eyes as he watched the black-haired individual pushing past a group timid-looking applicants and laughing about it with his group. "The former champion of the previous three tournaments as well as a guy that's been said to be on a captain-level… Uzumaki Menma."

_Uzumaki… Menma…?_ Sasuke blinked as he recognized figure's surname. _Uzumaki… Uzumaki… Uzumaki… Where have I heard that name before…?_

"Be careful of him, Sasuke," warned Suigetsu in a low tone. "I've fought against him before in the semifinal rounds, and he completely wiped me out…"

…

Sasuke and Suigetsu suddenly looked up at the sound of the voice overhead, as did everyone else in the room.

"**Attention all tournament applicants! We will now proceed with the initial round of the Grand Divisional Tournament! All applicants, please proceed to the battle lobby through the nearest door on the right. Again, please proceed to the battle lobby through the nearest door on the right. Thank you and good luck!"**

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**In case you guys haven't figured it out by now, this whole entire tournament is to just recreate the Chunin Exam part of "Naruto." It's not the same exact thing, but it'll be fairly similar. Anyways, I promise that the next chapter will be much more fun and action-packed.**


	4. Old Friends, New Enemies

**Disclaimer:** Guess what it is.

**Author's Note:** Well, in a little over twenty-five hours it will be New Years. Just for that I took some time out of my free time to write out this chapter just to celebrate the "last day" of 2013 in my own little way. I hope that you guys enjoy the chapter, and I'll probably be posting the next chapter in around two to three weeks.

So I've gotten one review (I think) and two PMs asking about whether Naruto would be making an appearance in my story or not. To be honest, he is, but I'm not sure how I'll be introducing him into the story. He won't be in the tournament though, so don't worry about it for now.

Also, if you guys annoyed or confused about one or two of the things during the chapter, read on until the end and check out the author's note at the end of the chapter. I'll most likely have an explanation for it there.

Follow, favorite, and review. If you saw anything that you liked or disliked about the chapter, feel free to leave a review.

**Chapter 4: Old Friends, New Enemies**

_I finally understand… I'm alone. I won't believe in anyone, or love anyone. I'm alone._

_- Gaara_

|The Battle Lobby, The Grand Spirit Dome, Soul Society|

As Sasuke, Suigetsu, and the rest of the tournament applicants entered the battle lobby, they saw that it was in fact an outside field set inside of the dome. The field was over one hundred feet by one hundred feet, and there were ten targets set up at the very front of the field.

Everyone suddenly looked to their right as a medium-length brown-haired man dressed in a dark purple Shihakushō walked out from nowhere. He had an almost lazy aura that seemed to surround him, and he walked with his hands inside his pockets. His Zanpakuto, which had a regular bronze tsuba and a brown hilt with bronze diamond patterns on it, hung from his back from a black leather strap. "Ok, listen up," he said in a surprisingly lazy and drawled out voice. "I'm Akihiro, your proctor for this tournament. For the initial round, you'll all be showing off your Zanjutsu, Hakuda, and Kido skills in front of everyone here… If I and my fellow proctor from Seireitei decide that you're out, then you're out. I won't tolerate any objections." He stared at the crowd of applicants through his lazy yet stern and narrowed dark brown eyes.

Sasuke frowned inwardly at the mention of Kido. _Kido… But I don't know any Kido… Am I going to be disqualified from the beginning…?_

"Now," continued the proctor, "let's start the-." He suddenly stopped at the sound of footsteps approaching the group from behind him and turned around to see a beautiful orange-haired busty woman approaching them, and many of the male applicants sighed dreamily and straightened up to look tough as they caught sight of her.

Akihiro gave the newcomer a slight nod as he turned back around to face the crowd. "Everyone, this is the jubantai-fukutaichou, Matsumoto Rangiku, your second proctor."

As Rangiku gave everyone a small wave, she flinched as she saw Sasuke, obviously taken by surprise by his sudden appearance. _I-Is that… Sasuke…? What is __**he**__ doing here…?_ Shaking her head, she pushed the thought to the side and concentrated on the tournament. "Anyways, shall we get going with this, Akihiro?"

Akihiro nodded in agreement as he stared at the people in the crowd. "Now… First up is Kido. You will each demonstrate a Hadō and Bakudō spell in front of the group, aimed at the targets and straw dummies that are stationed at the very front of the field." Sighing as if he was already exhausted from the day's events, he looked around the crowd for his first group of victims.

"Alright…" He pointed to eight males and two females that were in the very front of the group and motioned for them to come up with a lazy beckoning motion using his hand. "You ten are first… Line up in front of the ten targets and show us a Hadō #4: Byakurai." He then waited for the first ten applicants to line up before saying anything more.

"Ok, and one… two… three!"

All ten applicants raised both hands at their own individual targets and, ignoring the incantation for such an easy spell, just went straight to the spell.

"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"

Ten streams of white-blue lightning discharged from all ten of the applicant's two hands, speeding towards their targets and completely obliterating it. As they weren't masters of Kido, their attacks were much more dispersed and ineffective; still, they managed to destroy most of their individual targets.

His face showing no emotion, Akihiro asked the ten applicants to step to the side and asked the next ten applicants to step forward. "Alright, and one… two… three… go!"

...

After most of the three hundred applicants finished performing Byakurai for Akihiro and Matsumoto, only Sasuke, Suigetsu, Menma, and two other people were left. As there were only a few applicants left, Akihiro asked them to perform Byakurai individually in front of the group with full power.

As the first of the last group stepped forward, Sasuke saw that she was a female of average height with her blonde-hair pulled back into four individual ponytails. "Alright," she said as she raised a single hand at her target. "Hadō #4: Byakurai!" A white-blue bolt of lightning much more compressed and powerful than most of the other applicant's shot out from her hand, obliterating her target completely so that nothing remained except for the wooden pole which it had sat upon.

Scoffing, she sniffed as she walked to the side of the completed applicants and stood there with crossed arms, a calm look on her face as she awaited the next applicant with the rest of the group.

Akihiro, looking surprised by her performance, shared an understanding look with Rangiku and pointed at the next applicant, who was a female with fairly short bright pink hair and large green eyes. She wore a plain pink and red top and along with a dark pink skirt which was worn over knee-length grey pants. Her outfit was completed with a pair of matching black gloves and boots.

Walking up to the line thirty feet away from her target, the female raised a single finger at her target, surprising all of the applicants and proctors except for Sasuke, who was distracted by her bright pink hair and large, hardened green eyes. _That girl…_ Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he stared hard at her. _I… know her from somewhere… I'm sure of it…!_

Taking a deep breath, the female maintained a calm and composed look on her face as she readied herself.

"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"

A narrow stream of lightning discharged from the girl's fingertip and created a fairly large hole that left just a thin circular layer of the remainder of the target.

This caused all of the applicants to murmur their surprise and confusion to each other, obviously having been taken aback by the girl's splendid performance. Even the two proctors looked stunned by her, and they both turned to look at each other in surprise.

"Th-That was amazing…!" said Rangiku in a surprised tone.

Akihiro nodded, a stunned look creeping across his usually lazy face. "That girl… The way that she executed Byakurai was at least at the level of a vice-captain, even if the power level wasn't as high as it should have been. Her reiatsu control must be at a master level." Shaking this off, he turned to face the remaining three applicants.

"Now, let's see…" The corner of his mouth switched as his narrowed eyes found Sasuke. "How about you, pretty boy?"

Sasuke frowned at this and stepped up to the white line, sighing inwardly as he heard multiple girls from the crowd of applicants sigh dreamily and cheer at his appearance. _How annoying…_ he thought as he raised a single finger at the target. _I've never done Kido before, but…_ He closed his eyes as he thought back to when he had observed the pink-haired girl's performance of Byakurai. _Now, the Hadō spell is definitely a concentrated discharge of reiatsu… So all I need to do is concentrate my reiatsu at the tip of my finger and discharge it, huh…? Well then…_ Opening his eyes, he narrowed them as he channeled his reiatsu into the tip of his finger. A small bright orb of blue energy began to manifest at his fingertip, and it grew with each passing second.

"Hadō #4… Byakurai."

A largely compressed and narrow stream of white-blue lightning shot out from Sasuke's fingertip and sped towards his target, obliterating it as well as causing scorch marks to appear near the edges of the two targets that stood on either side of it.

Rangiku's eyes widened as she saw this. _Wh-What…?! I never knew that Sasuke could use Kido, nonetheless use it with such precision and accuracy…! This guy… He was meant to become a Shinigami._

As Sasuke walked to the crowd of finished applicants, he noticed Menma smirking at him as well as the pink-haired girl from earlier staring at him with a curious look on her face.

… After Sasuke, Suigetsu and Menma were the only two applicants left. Suigetsu, who was up first, was barely able to use Byakurai as it accidentally discharged early and only hit the top right of the target. Menma, however, was able to use a highly powered-up Byakurai which completely destroyed his target and scorched the wall behind it.

After everyone had passed, the Zanjutsu and Hakuda tests were next. The three hundred applicants were put into groups of five and ordered to spar each other. Although Sasuke easily passed this test, he found himself being surprised, even if it was only just barely, by Menma's performance. The cruel figure cruelly took out his opponents with powerful and almost illegal elbow jabs to the windpipe, knees to the face, and various other moves that completely wiped out his opponents. His movements were so in-tune and refined that Sasuke found himself realizing that his own Hakuda skills were most likely inferior to Menma's own.

The next and final test, which was Zanjutsu, was where all of the applicants minus around ten or so people who were sent to the emergency room demonstrated their swordsmanship skills to the entire group by performing various moves on the straw dummy while keeping it "alive" by not puncturing or attacking any of the areas that would be "fatal" to it. In this test, Menma proved to be almost as skilled swordsman as Sasuke, but it was still obvious to even Sasuke that Menma's Hakuda skills surpassed his own.

… After the three tests, the applicants were then sent to the battle stage which was a large room that was around one hundred and three hundred feet by one hundred and three feet and was told to stay there. Out of the three hundred applicants, only sixty-four were able to pass. The rest were considered too weak or unfit to enter the first "official" round of the tournament and were disqualified.

As Sasuke and the others entered the room, they were welcomed with the ear-deafening cheers from the crowd of over five hundred people that were seated all around the battle stage. It was similar to an arena, but not quite an arena. The only thing in the arena besides the seats for the spectators was a large platform that stood in the middle of the room. Sasuke guessed that that was where they would be fighting. There were also four large screens mounted on the top of all four corners of the room.

"W-Wow!" gasped the pink-haired female in amazement. "What a crowd…!"

Menma, who was calmly accepting the cheers that were directed at him with crossed arms, scoffed at the pink-haired female's novice and rolled his eyes at his group of followers, causing them to snicker at her.

Akihiro and Rangiku, who suddenly appeared in the middle of the platform using flash step, waved at the crowd and motioned for the quarter-finalists to step forward. "Now," began Akihiro in a loud voice, "thank you all for coming to the quarter-finals for the Global Divisional Tournament!" He then paused and waited for the cheers to die down. "Now, with the sixty-four remaining quarter-finalists, we will now begin the first official round of the tournament!"

As the crowd cheered and screamed in approval, Akihiro and Rangiku stepped up to the group of quarter-finalists. "Now, I believe that all of you were assigned a number during the application process, am I correct?" asked Akihiro as he glanced at the group.

Once everyone nodded, he continued. "Well, now you will each find the person that has the same number as you; as for the rest of you who can't find the three people that belong in your group, that's because they were most likely disqualified. If that should happen, then come to Rangiku-san and I, and we'll fit you in with a group."

Once he finished, the group of applicants looked around for their group and wandered around in search of the three people that they were to be grouped with. Sasuke, luckily, was partnered with Suigetsu- _probably because we registered together,_ thought Sasuke to himself- as well as the pink-haired girl and the blonde-haired girl with four ponytails. To his surprise, he saw that the blonde-haired girl had a Zanpakuto as well, but he didn't mention it.

"Well, it looks like we're a group, huh?" said the blonde. Turning to Sasuke, she gave him a flirty wink. "So, what's your name?"

Frowning at this, Sasuke glanced to the side as he ignored the wink. "Uchiha Sasuke."

_Well well well, isn't __he__ a hottie?_ thought the blonde as she studied him carefully. "I'm Temari," she said, introducing herself to the group. "Nice to meet you all."

The pink-haired girl gave everyone a small smile as she introduced herself next. "I'm Haruno Sakura," she replied in a fairly feminine yet resolved voice that told everyone in the group that she wasn't here to play around. Sasuke also noticed that although she was smiling at everyone, it was more directed towards him.

Sighing tiredly, Suigetsu yawned as he stretched his arms out over his head. "Well, I'm Hōzuki Suigetsu," he said in a lazy voice. "Nice to meet you all." Scratching the back of his head, he yawned again as he looked around the room. "So, why are we paired up in groups of four anyways? I thought that this was supposed to be a battle stage. Doesn't that mean that we're going to fight?"

… Once Akihiro and Rangiku grouped up the leftovers, he clapped his hands once to get everyone's attention. "Everyone, listen up!" he said in a lazy yet stern voice. "Now, this round of the tournament is going to be a little bit more… _brutal_ than the previous initial round." As he said this, he walked over to a level that was located on the ground near the right side of the platform and yanked it down, causing the ground to rumble beneath their feet.

The middle part of the platform suddenly started to cave in and drop slowly to reveal a large underground passageway located underneath the battle stage. Even Menma seemed surprised by this, and all of the hostility in the air was forgotten between the fourteen teams as they gazed down into the underground maze-like area with awe. At the same time, the monitors located throughout the room flickered to life, revealing a live feed of the maze below.

"This is your next stage for the first round of the tournament," explained Rangiku. "The passageway below leads to an area that was built specifically for this purpose. In there lies many low-leveled Hollows that you must defeat if you happen to come across them, or you'll die. You'll also be fighting against of the groups here, and in order to pass, you must take the emerald stone that every team has with them." Having said this, she held up a small hexagonal-shaped emerald to show the groups. "_This_ is one of the two items required to pass this round of the tournament. Every group will have a sapphire stone which they'll have to carry around with them, but _both_ stones are required to pass this round, understood?"

As everyone nodded in understanding, Akihiro and Rangiku passed around the sapphire stone to each of the fourteen groups, but what they _didn't_ know was that they secretly slipped in the emerald stone inside the pockets of the members of seven of the groups.

After they had finished passing out the stones to everyone, Akihiro opened his mouth to speak one last time. "Now, I've secretly given an emerald stone to seven of the fourteen groups. Everyone is to check their pockets once they've entered the arena, and you are to tell no one that you have the stone; otherwise, that group could end up being the targets for the other groups. The others groups are to search for and seize control of the emerald stone from any of the other groups and run straight towards the exit that's located on the far side of the maze, understood?"

…

"Then good luck, and I pray that none of you are killed in this round," said Akihiro in a serious tone. "Also, remember that even though seven of the fourteen groups have the emerald stone, only six can pass. Now, each of you line up in one of the ten marked spots that leads down to the arena and wait for my command!"

… Once everyone lined up in their respective places, Akihiro glanced around the room and took a deep breath. "Three… two… one… Begin!"

And with that, the fourteen teams plunged down into the unknown that lay below them without hesitation, knowing in the depth of their hearts that they might not come out alive.

…

Landing on the ground below in a crouched position, Sasuke, Suigetsu, Temari, and Sakura all looked up at the sound of unknown screeches echoing throughout the barren cave. _Hmmm…_ Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he glanced around the surrounding area with just his eyes, his entire being unmoving as he studied the aura of his surroundings. _Now… Judging by the position and spikes of reiatsu, there's a single team located not two hundred feet from where we are now, and there's multiple Hollows scattered throughout the cave…_

Once he finished grasping as much information as he could from his surroundings, he closed his eyes and breathed in a breath of cool air. _Ok… _Straightening up, he unsheathed his Zanpakuto and looked around at his group. "We'll be heading for the group located nearest to us," he said suddenly before walking in the direction that the enemy group was in. "Let's go."

As he walked away, however, he was stopped by Sakura grabbing onto his wrist. "Wait a minute!" she demanded in a slightly frustrated tone. "We shouldn't just be charging at whichever group is nearest to us! We should think about this and form a plan first! Also, shouldn't we figure out how our abilities can coordinate with each other's so that we can fight effectively when the time comes?" Her eyes were wide as she stared at Sasuke, and he found himself realizing that there was a hopeful glimmer in her eyes that begged for his approval, and he wasn't sure if she herself knew this.

Frowning, he pried his wrist from her grip and looked away from her. "You're annoying," he replied calmly. "There's no need to figure out how we'll be fighting together because that won't happen. Fighting in groups isn't my style." Having said this, he resumed walking away, Suigetsu and Temari quietly following after him.

Sakura looked down at the ground disappointedly as she trudged after the others, a sorrowful glint appearing in her eyes. _Why… does he dislike me so much…? That look in his eyes… It wasn't of hate or even annoyance but more of someone that's trying to push me away... and why do I care so much about it...?_

_Meanwhile…_

Menma looked up at the ceiling of the cave which had closed and closed his eyes as a cool breeze fluttered past him, causing his hair to rustle in the wind. His group, which consisted of two males and one female, waited quietly behind him, not daring to utter a peep in fright that it might cause him to unexpectedly lash out.

After a few moments passed, the feral male opened his eyes and looked down at the three bodies that lay on the ground mangled before him. Arms broken, legs twisted, and even a broken neck. Each of the bodies were mangled and torn up in a unique way, but their similarity was that they were all covered in blood.

Menma licked his lips joyously as he turned around to look at his group. One had gotten away, but it didn't matter. He could hunt the loner of the group down at any time.

The group stiffened as their unofficial leader turned around to face them, and they dared not even breathe as he watched them carefully. It was only when he spoke that they released the breath that they had unconsciously been holding in.

"Don't worry about the runaway," said Menma quietly, his voice soft and smooth but dangerous. "We can't hunt him down later if it comes down to it, but it won't be necessary." He then opened his clenched hand and held up the emerald stone that he had found in one of the defeated opponent's pockets. "We were lucky that they had the emerald stone, huh?"

The group nodded in agreement simultaneously, and Menma grinned a feral grin that sent shivers running down all three of their spines. "The proctor said that even though seven of the groups have this stone, only six would be allowed to pass, am I right? What a stupid and pointless rule."

"Y-Yea," stammered one of the males nervously. "B-But we're l-lucky that we f-found one of the stones s-so early in th-this round."

Menma nodded in agreement, and his grin grew even wider as he held the emerald stone up for the whole group to see. "Well, you're definitely right about that, but you're forgetting one thing, Buzz…" He slowly closed his fingers so that the emerald stone was no longer visible, and slowly tightening his grip on it, he crushed it into fine dust. He then flipped his hand over and opened his fist, causing the emerald dust to scatter through the air so that it danced past the group and into the unknown with the breeze.

"Our main objective… is Uchiha… Sasuke."

* * *

Sasuke flipped his opponent, a long brown-haired male with green eyes, onto his back and slammed the end of his Zanpakuto's hilt into his stomach, knocking the breath out of him and causing his eyes to roll to the back of his head. Tossing his unconscious opponent aside, he looked around and saw Temari easily dispatching her opponent with a kick to the face, and Sakura, though she was having a harder time with her opponent then her teammates, managed to land an impressive combo of elbows and knees on her female opponent, knocking her out as well.

Suigetsu, on the other hand, was having fun toying with his opponent, and he had him pressed up against the wall with the point of his sword nicking his neck. "Well, where's the emerald stone, huh?" he inquired with a smooth and silky voice. "If you tell me, I won't have to kill you, but if you _don't_ on the other hand, then, well…" He pressed the point of his blade even harder against his prey's bare skin. "I think that you can figure it out, am I right?"

Suigetsu's opponent gulped in fright as he tried not to shake. "I-I-, I mean, _w-we_ don't have the e-emerald stone, I s-swear!"

Sighing in frustration, Suigetsu withdrew his sword and picked the scrawny male up by the scruff of his robe. "Ok then… Tell me about the other group's locations. Where are they currently at? Where are they headed towards? Are there any traps? Tell me." He then closed his eyes and gave him a big, unnerving grin.

"Now… spill it."

…

A few minutes after the interrogation, Sasuke and the others were walking alongside a carved rocky path in search of their next prey when they suddenly heard a shrill scream pierce the air, breaking the silence.

Sasuke's head shot up as he heard this, and he narrowed his eyes as he pinpointed the location of the scream. Motioning for the others to follow him, he signaled for Temari to keep a lookout on the blind sides of the group formation.

"D-Did you feel that r-reiatsu, Sasuke?" asked Sakura in a frightened whisper. "Are we r-really going to go _towards_ that huge reiatsu?!"

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose in order to maintain his cool as he stopped to answer. "The purpose of his round is to eliminate most of the competition and pass through the first round of the tournament." Having said this, he continued onwards with the rest of the group following him silently.

"He's right, Sakura," said Temari quietly as she kept a lookout for any signs of enemies. "The more threats we eliminate this round, the better it'll be for the next round… Anyways, we'll have to face everyone sooner or later, so it'll be better for us to deal with any annoying problems now instead of later."

… As they ventured onwards, Sasuke held up his hands as a signal to stop as he came upon what he was certain was the location of the scream from earlier. _Now… Let's see who this guy is…_ As the group had stopped behind a wall of the cave, he motioned for everyone to stay still as he stretched his head out from behind the wall.

First was the victim, a male with chocolate brown hair and wide, dark brown eyes speckled with hazel flecks. He was lying on the ground, completely still with his eyes glazed over. Sasuke realized that he wasn't hurt but still unconscious.

Next was his opponent, a red-haired male with strange pale blue-green eyes along with black eye rings. He was a little shorter than the average height, and Sasuke noticed that he had the kanji for "love" tattooed on the left side of his forehead. He was dressed in full-length dark trousers as well as a long-sleeved sand-brown coat with flaring hemlines. He wore a grey holster vest over it which was held together by a single strap over his left shoulder, and he carried his sword, which was a Zanpakuto, on his back with a strap. It was a regular katana with a rectangular blood-red tsuba and hilt with bronze diamond patterns on it.

_That guy…_ Looking away from the group, Sasuke spun back around to face the group, his face showing nothing as he looked at this group. As he opened his mouth to speak, however, he was interrupted by a voice that seemed to come from the red-haired figure.

"Come on out you four," he said in a calm and collected voice. "It's quite obvious that you're there."

…

Knowing that they had no other choice except for retreating, Suigetsu jerked his head to the left, signaling for everyone to step out from behind their hiding place. "We might as well." With that, he and the others, including Sasuke, stepped forward from their hiding spot and stepped out into the open to face their new foes.

_Wh-What in the world…?_ thought Sakura as he saw the red-haired figure. _Th-This guy…! He doesn't look strong at all, but his level of reiryoku is surprisingly high…! We might be in for a whole lot of trouble if we're not careful…_

"You…" The red-haired figure blinked, a calm look on his face as he pointed to Sasuke. "Someone at your level shouldn't have to resort to spying on your opponents, and yet…" He closed his eyes and sighed as he lowered his hand. "I feel as if I know you from somewhere… What's your name, stranger?"

Unsheathing his Zanpakuto, Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he stared hard at the enemy figure. "I'm interested in who you are too… I'm Uchiha Sasuke… And you are?"

"My name is Sabaku no Gaara," he answered quietly. "I wonder… Did you come here to fight me, or did you come here to seek the answer to the question that I myself have been asking ever since my arrival in Soul Society…?"

His eyes slightly widening at this, Sasuke didn't answer as he continued to stare at the red-haired figure. _This guy… He's right… I knew that he was the enemy, but for some strange reason, I thought that the answer to my past life could be answered by meeting this guy… I __**know**__ that I've met him before, but where…? So much confusing things have been happening today... Interesting..._

"I can see that I was right…" Gaara opened his eyes as he stared levelly into Sasuke's eyes. "Uchiha Sasuke… As none of our teams possess the emerald stone, why don't we postpone our fight until later…? If what we're both thinking is true, then we _will_ end up fighting someday…"

…

Spinning his Zanpakuto in his hand, Sasuke sheathed it with a single fluid movement and walked away with the rest of his group. Gaara's group, who had been timidly watching from the sidelines, made no effort to stop the opposing group. "Very well then," said Sasuke as he walked away. "Until next time, Sabaku no Gaara."

... Menma chuckled quietly to himself as he saw this. _As I thought… Those two guys are just a bunch of pussies…! _Straightening up from his crouched position, he stretched out his back and turned to face the rest of his group who had been quietly standing behind him.

"Well, let's get moving," he ordered. Picking up his sheathed sword from the ground next to him, he leapt down from his spot to the ground below.

As his group followed suit, he looked around and then closed eyes as he concentrated on the groups of reiatsu that were scattered all throughout the cave. _One… two… five Hollows located not far from here… There's also-._

"Boss," said one of his teammates, interrupting his thoughts.

Growling in annoyance, Menma turned around to face his teammate, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Talon… What?"

Gulping nervously, Talon, a shaggy blonde-haired male with piercing golden eyes, struggled to look away from his bosses' dead ash grey eyes. "Sh-Shouldn't we go after that U-Uchiha Sasuke's group…? Since h-he's the closest t-to us, we could easily c-catch up to them and-."

"No," said Menma abruptly, cutting his teammate off. "If I'm going to test my strength against Uchiha Sasuke, I want it to be in a place where I can humiliate him in front of the whole crowd while we're there in person!" Looking in the direction that Sasuke's group had headed off in, his lips spread into wide grin which showed off his pointed canines.

"Anyways… Let's go."

_Three hours later…_

The six final groups stood side-by-side proudly with their heads held high as the eager spectators cheered and shouted their approval. Akihiro and Rangiku quietly waited with their hands clasped behind their back as they looked on in approval.

The six passing groups were Sasuke's, Menma's, surprisingly Gaara's, and three other groups. As they presented their sapphire and emerald stones to the two proctors, they quietly awaited their next instructions.

Once they finished collecting each group's tokens, Akihiro and Rangiku gave each other a slight nod and turned to face the winning groups. "Ok," Akihiro started, "congratulations to the six passing groups of the first round of the Grand Divisional Tournament. Now, listen carefully to these next instructions. You see the four monitors mounted on each corner of the battle stage? They'll be determining which opponents you're going to be fighting next."

"W-Wait a second!" cried out Sakura. "Are you saying that we have to fight _again_?! We _just_ finished fighting against multiple Hollows and the enemy groups! Don't we get to rest at all?!"

The other first round finalists voiced their agreement at this, and there was a string of murmur and complaints throughout the six groups. _Che!_ scoffed Sasuke silently. _How annoying…_

"Now, don't worry," cooed Rangiku mockingly as she patted Sakura's head. "Aren't _you_ the cutest thing?"

Sakura's face grew hot at this, and she struggled not to explode as some of the other group members snickered at her humiliation.

"I'm just kidding," said Rangiku with a wink. "We already knew that one or more of you guys would complain at that. Don't worry, you guys won't be fighting in your current conditions. We've actually invited the captain of the 4th Division of the Gotei 13 to tend to your wounds before the tournament. There will be a thirty minute intermission before we continue onto the second round- or the semi-finals, I should say, of the tournament."

This caused a gasp of awe to rise up from the groups as they thought about finally getting to meet one of the legendary Gotei 13 captains. "A-A c-captain…?" stuttered Sakura in amazement. "W-Wow…! That's-!"

She was suddenly interrupted by an announcement that sounded from the speakers that were built into the ceilings above.

"**Attention everyone! We will now have a thirty minute intermission before continuing onto the second round of the Global Divisional Tournament! Please use this time to make any necessary trips to the food stand and/or the restroom! Again, we will now have a thirty minute intermission before continuing onto the second round of the tournament! If you have anything to do before the tournament continues, now is the time to do it! Thank you, and have a nice day!"**

Sasuke looked up at the ceiling and grinned. _Heh… This will be interesting…_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

In case you guys were wondering, I wasn't trying to undermine Sakura in any way. I was just showing her "timid" side that always seems to appear whenever she's around Sasuke. She'll still be the tough tomboy that she usually is in the manga and anime starting from the next chapter on, so don't worry about it.

**Translations:**

Sabaku no Gaara: Gaara of the Desert.

Follow, favorite, and review if you found this chapter likable. Thank you.


	5. Semi-Final Rounds

**Disclaimer:** Always the same.

This is more like a filler chapter with just short fights between the "main" characters of this tournament. Sorry, and I promise that I'll update the next chapter as quickly as possible. Just to give you guys a "preview" of the chapter as a thanks for reading this boring chapter, it will be including Suigetsu's Zanpakuto release as well as Temari's and Gaara's. I don't think I'll be able to include _all_ of the fights in one chapter, so it might be broken down into two.

Anyways, try and enjoy this chapter, and I'm very sorry if it bores you. I promise to make the fights for the final round as exciting as possible. Also, thank you for the reviews. Much appreciated.

**Chapter 5: Semi-Final Rounds**

_You have the same eyes as I do… the eyes, filled with hatred and death, that long for strength… just like mine… your eyes tell me how badly you wish to kill the one who put you through the hell called loneliness._

_- Gaara_

"All of the semi-finalists, please enter the infirmary in a single file line and wait for your treatment! After that, please proceed to the waiting area where all of the non-participants will wait for the semi-final round to begin!"

... As Sasuke, Suigetsu, and the other twenty-two semi-finalists entered the infirmary, their eyes widened in surprise as they saw the person in front of their eyes. Even though Rangiku had told them that a real Gotei 13 captain would be here, she was still a sight to behold.

The captain was a very youthful woman with long black hair and gentle blue eyes. Her long hair was braided to fall in front of her body, covering her neck and the very front of her body. She wore the standard Shinigami Shihakushō with a white captain's haori over it, and her entire being radiated a calm and serene aura that automatically set a gentle atmosphere in the room.

Even Sasuke looked surprised at the power and authority that the woman seemed to radiate. _So this a captain… Her level of reiatsu is completely different from that Shinigami vice-captain woman's and that Menma's…_

"Hello everyone," said the captain in a kind and gentle tone. "I'm the yonbantai-taichou, Unohana Retsu. It's nice to meet you all." As she said this, she gave the group a kind yet seemingly dead smile. "I will be performing healing Kido on you all to get you all ready for the second round of the tournament. I hope that we can all get along for the short time that we will be seeing each other."

"Wow!" breathed Sakura. "She's amazing, and she's so young too! I wonder how a young woman like her ever managed to become a captain! She must be incredibly strong!"

Unohana seemed to hear this, and she turned to pink-haired girl and gave her a smile. "Why thank you very much, but I should warn you, I'm not as young as I look; in fact, I'm probably much, much older than you might guess that I am."

Sakura blinked, confused by the captain's statement. "Uh…"

"Ok," said Unohana as she turned her gaze to the rest of the group, "I will be taking one patient at a time, so please form a single orderly-fashioned line in front of the infirmary bed, and once I've finished with you, please make your way to the waiting area in the battle stage."

… Sasuke was the fifth in line, and after the captain had finished with him and Suigetsu, who was the fourth in line, they made their way to the waiting area, which was a neutral area built on an upper level in the battle arena made just for the tournament participants. There were benches for them to sit on, and there was also a rail built in to the edge so that they could lean on it as they watched the fights.

As they climbed up the staircase to the waiting area, Sasuke noticed Akihiro and Rangiku already standing in the middle of the giant battle platform as they discussed what was probably the match-ups for the second round.

Reaching the top of the staircase, Sasuke noticed a bench sitting in the back against the wall, but he ignored it and chose to instead lean against the railing of the waiting area as he watched the spectators. He noticed Rangiku turning to wave at him, and as he turned his gaze to face her, he simply blinked in response as he turned back to gaze as the sea of people. He saw Rangiku's head droop in disappointment out of the corner of his eyes, but he ignored this and instead focused on the remaining group of participants that were coming out of the infirmary.

_Hm… So, as far as I know, the only people here who pose the smallest bit of threat are Suigetsu, Temari, Sakura, Gaara, and Menma… Suigetsu, who cares… Besides that Sakura girl, they all possess a Zanpakuto, so their Shikai could become annoying to deal with…_

"**The second round of the tournament will begin in approximetly one minute. Everyone, please make your way back to the battle stage if you have not done so already. Again, the second round of the tournament will begin in approximetly one minute. If anyone is not at the battle stage, please make your way there immediately. Thank you, and enjoy the second round of the Grand Divisional Tournament."**

"The second round, huh?" Suigetsu stretched out his right arm and spun it in place, marveling at how much better it was. "_Wow_!" he laughed. "I'm surprised at how well these Shinigami can use healing Kido! I feel even better than I did _before_ the tournament started!"

Sasuke glanced at his companion out of the corner of his eyes before turning his gaze back to the battle platform. "Yea…" He narrowed his eyes as he watched Akihiro wave at the audience to get their attention. "Anyways… Get ready, Suigetsu… It's starting."

"Heh," chuckled Suigetsu as he rubbed his hands in anticipation. "This will be fun alright."

… As the crowd quieted down, Akihiro nodded to Rangiku, signaling her to begin. Rangiku gave him a quick grin in response as she turned to face the crowd. On the monitors that flickered to life, Rangiku's face came into view as the cameras turned their lenses onto her.

"Attention everyone!" began the vice-captain as she clapped her hands once. "We will now begin the second round- or rather, the semi-final round of the Grand Divisional Tournament! In the four monitors that you see mounted on the four corners of the battle stage, the twenty-four semi-finalists names will randomly appear on the screen in pairs to determine the match-up for the ten battles!" Having said this, she turned to the right monitor in the very front of the battle stage and gestured to it. "Now, let's see our first match-up for the semi-final round of the tournament!"

As the crowd roared in approval, the four monitors flickered to a blank green background where two names spun in a loop as it decided which two people would be the first two opponents. Rangiku narrowed her eyes as she stared hard at the screen. _I wonder who Sasuke's opponent will be…_

Everyone looked alert as the first two opponents showed up on the screen.

**First match: Karin vs Kirin Doku**

"Heh." Karin, whose team was one of the six to make it out, grinned in anticipation as she looked up at the giant screen. Flipping over the rail and jumping down to the giant battle platform below, Karin looked up and grinned at the group of participants above. "So, which one of you weaklings is Doku? Hurry up and get down here!"

"Alright, Doku, please get down here!" called out Akihiro as he cupped both hands around his mouth. "Let's hurry up and get on with the first match!"

"Understood." A figure standing in the shadows of the waiting area suddenly seemed to vanish in a whirlwind of leaves as he reappeared onstage with a determined look in his eyes. "Since you're so impatient to get this battle over with, I'll end it for you quickly."

Karin's eyes widened in mild surprise at her opponent's incredible speed. _C-Crap… I might've spoken too soon._

Her opponent was a spiky brown-haired male with piercing hazel eyes and diamond-shaped sterling silver piercings on both ears. He wore a plain brown cut-off shirt with matching brown pants that were ripped on the ends. He also wore black gloves and matching combat boots.

Karin herself was wearing a plain zippered black cloak, and as she took it off with a flourish, she revealed herself wearing a bright red t-shirt which exposed her stomach and very short black shorts. She also had on a pair of black boots and bandages wrapped around her forearms and upper arms.

"Alright…" Akihiro clapped his hands once and motioned for Karin and Doku to step forward. "Now, shake hands and we can begin the first match."

After the two shook hands, Akihiro raised his arm and took a deep breath. "Now, the first match between Karin and Kirin Doku will begin in three… two… one! Begin!" And with that he brought down his arm, signaling for the match to begin.

As Karin leapt forward, she quickly spun around and swung her leg at her opponent in an attempt to catch him by the side. Doku, however, saw this coming and easily evaded the attack by sidestepping the attack. He quickly retaliated by grabbing her leg and throwing her across the platform, and Karin yelled out as she skid across the floor.

Speeding across the area and halting right in front of Karin, Doku spun on the ball of his foot and caught Karin in the side right as she stood up with his heel, causing her to cry out in pain as she went flying and skidding across the battle platform.

"Che! You've gotta be kidding me!" spat Doku as he sped towards his opponent. "You go and act all tough for the crowd, and this is all you can do?!" As he jumped into the air, he raised his leg and brought it down in an attempt to end this match instantly. Karin, however, rolled to the side just in time to dodge the attack. As his foot made contact with the ground, the force of Doku's attack caused a small spider web of cracks to streak across it.

Quickly jumping onto her feet, Karin spun around and pointed a hand at Doku before he could straighten up from his attack. "Hadō #4: Byakurai!" A bright streak of white-blue lightning shot out of her hand and sped towards her opponent.

Doku quickly looked up at the sound of the Kido spell, and caught by surprise, he was barely able to evade the attack as he flash stepped to the right; however, the attack still managed to clip his side, causing him to clumsily roll over on the ground multiple times before coming to a halt.

… From her position besides Akihiro, Rangiku narrowed her eyes as she watched the battle. _I see… So I was right; he knows how to use flash step… It's very slow and sluggish, but it's better than what most unseated officers are capable of… This guy's more skilled than I thought…_

Quickly recovering from the attack, Doku's head shot up as he braced himself for an attack, but to his surprise, none came. As he leapt onto his feet, he looked around to look for his opponent but was unable to find any signs of her. "What the… Where did she go?"

"Hadō #1: Shō!"

Doku's head snapped up to face the ceiling, and his eyes widened in shock as he saw Karin above him, her finger pointed straight at him. "Oh sh-!" He let out a yell as he was sent flying by the pulse of reiatsu that was shot straight at his face.

Landing on the ground below, a proud grin spread across her face as she stared at Doku smugly. "How was _that_?"

"You…" As Doku looked up at her, he growled as he touched the right side of his face which had a large red bruise that was starting to form. "So a Kido girl, huh? I see… You can't match my Hakuda skills, so you're relying on trickery, is that right?" Cracking his knuckles, Doku rolled his neck as he got to his feet. "Alright then, let's see how you like _this_."

Using flash step to get behind her, Doku used Karin's lack of speed to quickly drop to the ground and sweep his legs across the floor, tripping her. As she fell, he quickly got underneath her and slammed his legs into her back, causing her to cough up blood as she shot up into the air.

Flash stepping above her, Doku let out a roar as he brought his leg down on Karin. _Oh shit!_ Karin's eyes widened as she brought up her arms into an "X" in order to soften the blow. _I can't… block this completely…_

THUD! A cloud of dust rose up from the battle platform as Karin crashed into the ground below. As Doku landed on the ground below, a satisfied grin appear on his face as he crossed in arms. _The match is over…_

Walking over to the middle of the platform, Akihiro and Rangiku both looked down at Karin's unconscious body and nodded simultaneously. Looking up, Akihiro turned his gaze to the crowd as he spoke.

"The winner of the first match is Kirin Doku!" he announced, and the crowd cheered for Doku as the winner of the first match walked towards the stairs that led to the waiting area.

Silence fell once again though as the names on the screen started to randomize again, the eyes of the semi-finalists intent and focused as they awaited the next pair for the second match.

**Second Match: Temari vs Sony**

Temari grinned from her position beside Sakura as she saw her name appear on the monitor. "Finally." Grabbing the hilt of her Zanpakuto that hung on her back, she leapt down from the railing and landed on the ground below in a crouched position. "Alright, let's get on with this fight!" she called out to the group of participants on the railing. "Who's Sony?"

On cue, a long black-haired male with dark brown eyes leapt down from the railing as well and landed five feet away from Temari. "Ok, let's go," he said in a quiet and moody voice. "It was a fight you wanted, right? Well, let's see if you can do better than that last girl who got her ass kicked."

Grinning in response, Temari simply took one step back as she took up a readied stance. "Ok proctor, call it!"

Sighing in exasperation, Akihiro rolled his eyes as he lifted his arm above his head. "Ok, let's do this. The second match between Temari and Sony… Begin!" And with that, the crowd cheered, signaling the start of the match.

Right away, Temari unsheathed her Zanpakuto and rushed at her opponent as she swung furiously at him. Sony seemed surprised by this, but he proved to be a worthy opponent as he skillfully evaded every stroke of the blade that came his way.

Dodging a horizontal swing from Temari, Sony grinned as he used this chance to swing his arm and tap her on the side of her ribcage. "Hadō #1: Shō!" As he released a burst of pressurized reiatsu from the edge of his hand, the force of the attack knocked Temari back over three feet away from him.

Everyone seemed surprised by this move, and Suigetsu whistled out loud as he clapped and cheered along with a majority of the audience. "Whoa, that guy's pretty good, huh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't reply as he quietly watched the match with a blank look on his face, but he noticed Menma watching him out of the corner of his eyes.

As Temari went flying back, she bent her legs as she landed on the ground and, using the strength in her legs, she propelled herself off of the ground and flew towards Sony with her Zanpakuto held out in front of her.

… As the battle pushed on, although Sony was a skilled and intelligent opponent, he was finally defeated with a high-powered full incantation Sōkatsui. Finding an opportunity, Temari had temporarily stunned him with a blow to the back of the head with the hilt of her sword, and using this opportunity, she quickly held out her hands and blasted him square in the chest with Sōkatsui, effectively knocking him out of the match.

As she walked back up to the waiting area, Sakura gave her an acknowledging nod and smile as she reached her former group. "That was well done, Temari-san," she congratulated. "I never knew that you were so skilled with the sword!"

"Heh, thanks," grinned Temari as she sheathed her katana. "Still, he was a pretty good… for a weakling that is."

The whole entire audience fell silent once again as the names on the monitors spun randomly, quietly awaiting the third pair for the match. As the two that were matched for the third fight suddenly appeared on the screens, they walked down to the battle stage and shook each other hands before the fight ensued on.

… The next eight matches passed by in a blur. Most of them were weak opponents who had just happened to be grouped with fairly strong people, which is the only reason why they were able to advance to the second round. When Sakura's turn came up, she proved herself to be much more skilled than she had made herself out to be back in the first round, and she used her surprising brute strength to knock her opponent over five feet up into the air with an uppercut to the jaw.

When Menma's turn came up, however, he was paired with one of his former group members. In his match, he proved himself to be cruel and merciless opponent by easily dispatching of the nervous opponent with a bone-shattering elbow to the face, completely breaking his nose as well as shattering his cheekbone. This caused the proctors as well as the audience and applicants to fall deathly quiet as his opponent fell on the ground face-flat, unconscious as blood poured from his nose and mouth.

At the end, there were only four people left- Sasuke, Suigetsu, and two other unknown people. Luckily, Sasuke wasn't paired with Suigetsu- instead, he was paired with a brown-haired male with blue eyes. As he walked down to the stage, he saw Rangiku giving him a flirty wink. Frowning, he ignored this and instead concentrated on studying his opponent.

_The way he carries himself and his body type… He definitely favors speed over strength, but still…_ As he shook hands with his opponent, he allowed a small grin to tug at the corner of his lips.

… _This match will be over in ten seconds._

Akihiro raised his arm as he glanced at both opponents. "Ok, and three… two… one… fight!"

As soon as he said the word "fight," Sasuke quickly drew his chokutō from its sheath and flash stepped behind his opponent, catching him by surprise. As he spun around with a surprised look on his face, Sasuke twirled his sword in his hand so that he was holding it in reverse grip and slammed the end of the hilt into his opponent's stomach, causing him to double over in pain.

Using this opportunity, Sasuke jumped up into the air and locked his opponent's neck with his legs and threw him onto the ground, and, leaping back a step, he executed a front flip and slammed the heel of his foot into his stomach, causing his eyes to widen as he coughed up a large amount of blood. His head then dropped on the ground, blacking out.

…

As he walked back to the waiting area, he noticed all of the winners watching him quietly with a slightly amazed look on their faces. "Whoa, that Sasuke… He's pretty good," whispered Sakura quietly. "He defeated his opponent is less than a minute."

"Try less than five seconds," corrected Temari with a scoff. "That Uchiha Sasuke… He's obviously a favorite for the final rounds. Just look at the audience cheering and screaming for him. He's a ladies man as well." She suddenly stopped talking as Sasuke reached the two and Suigetsu. "Congratulations, Sasuke," said Temari as she winked as him.

Remaining quiet, Sasuke simply acknowledged her with a nod in thanks. As he leaned against the railing, Suigetsu, who was next to him, gave him a big grin. "Well, nice performance, Sasuke. Still, don't you think that you were showing off a little bit?"

…

"Hahaha, just kidding! Just kidding!" Suigetsu laughed out loud as he rolled his neck. "Well, it looks like my match is the last one! Wish me luck!" And with that, he bent his legs and side-jumped over the railing.

As he landed on the ground, he grinned as he walked up to the stage and faced his opponent. His opponent was a male with an unappealing face and a crooked nose. He had beady black eyes, and he had three scratches that stretched from below his eyes to below the side of his chin. "Heh." Suigetsu chuckled softly to himself as he shook his opponent's hand. "Nice to meet you."

His opponent remained silent, and Suigetsu turned his head and scoffed. _Che! What a party killer…_ He then cracked his neck with his hands and took up a fighting stance with slightly bent knees as Rangiku raised her hand. "Ok, are you two ready? Ready… fight!"

"Hah!" Crouching even lower, Suigetsu leapt into the air, and, still keeping his katana sheathed, swung at his opponent in an attempt to catch him on the side of his head. His opponent, however, quickly ducked and avoiding the attack. As he ducked, he placed his hands on the ground and kicked up with both of his legs to try and get him by the stomach.

Suigetsu, however, saw this and twisted over to the side in mid-air, narrowly avoiding the attack. As he landed on the ground, he released his grip on his sheathed katana and sped forward with surprising speed.

Although his opponent was taken by surprise, he still managed to fall back in order to dodge a quick front jab from Suigetsu. As he fell on his butt, Suigetsu punched down at the ground with surprising strength, and as the opponent rolled over on the ground, the impact of the punch caused the ground to slightly crack.

Leaping onto his feet, the opponent yelled out and rushed at him, executing a series of fast but sluggish punches, jabs, and round kicks. Suigetsu was easy able to evade all of these attacks, and this went on for another minute or so before he grew tired of it and swung his leg at him. His foot clipped his opponent on the side of his head, and he was instantly knocked out.

As he fell on the ground with a soft thud, Suigetsu walked over to his katana and picked it up. Akihiro walked over to Suigetsu's fallen opponent and checked his pulse; after that, he raised his hand for attention. "And the winner of the final semi-final match is Suigetsu!"

As the crowd cheered in approval, Suigetsu walked up to the waiting area and gave everyone waiting for him a wide grin. "Heh, looks like the semi-final rounds are over."

"Yea…" Sasuke frowned as he caught Menma glancing at him from the very right of the waiting area. "It looks like the proctors are going to explain it to us."

… A few minutes after the final match ended, Sasuke and all of the other finalists walked down to the middle of the battle stage as the proctors waved at them to come down. As they reached them, Rangiku, who was holding a box with a bunch of folded slips of paper inside of it, walked over to each of the applicants and let them pick out a slip each.

As Sasuke picked out of slip of paper, he unfolded it and saw the number "5" on it. Suigetsu, who had the number "10," grinned as he looked at Sasuke's number. "Number five, huh?"

"Ok!" Akihiro clapped his hands for the group's attention; once he got it, he motioned for Rangiku to step forward. "Now, Rangiku-san will be explaining the final round of the tournament."

"Hey everyone," said Rangiku as she glanced at each and every member of the group. "Now, the slip of paper will be deciding who your opponent is for the final round. Now, since there are twelve finalists, there will be six separate matches for the first tier of the final rounds." Saying this, she held up a piece of paper that she had been writing on while talking. "Now, look over this piece of paper and see who your opponent the final round is going to be."

This is what the paper said:

**Match 1: Temari vs Doku - - Match 2: Halo vs Yadomaru**

**Match 3: Sasuke vs Gaara - - Match 4: Suigetsu vs Buzz**

**Match 5: Sakura vs Talon - - Match 6: Menma vs Blitz**

_So…_ Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he saw his name. _Gaara is my first opponent… How fitting._

Suigetsu, after studying the paper with the match-ups, grinned widely as he glanced at Sasuke out of the corner of his eyes. _So, according to the match-ups, if I defeat my opponent, my next opponent is Sasuke… Well, this will be interesting…_

"Now, is everybody clear on the match-ups?" asked Rangiku as she rolled up the piece of paper. "Match 1 and Match 2 are paired up as well as Match 3 and Match 4. The winners of Matches 1 and 2 will face off with each other, and the same goes for Match 3 or 4. After that, the final battle will be between the winner of those two matches."

"So I understand how the final rounds work, but when exactly is it, Matsumoto-san?" asked Sakura curiously. "I can tell that we won't be going into it right away, but with the time and everything…"

"That's a good question," said Rangiku as she gave Sakura a smile. "Well, the final rounds will be exactly one week from now. We have individual rooms for all of you, so while you're here, train hard and figure out strategies to use against your opponents as you now know who you'll be facing in the final rounds." Having said this, she glanced at all of the finalists and frowned. "Well, it doesn't look like anyone is seriously injured, so it looks like you'll be able to heal your wounds naturally. Ok, everyone head up to your rooms, which the workers and attendants will show you to, and rest up for today. The final rounds will be in exactly one week from now, so work hard, and Akihiro and I will be checking up on you all daily."

And with that, the finalists of the tournament left the battle stage and headed up to their individual rooms, each of them tired yet eager for the final rounds that would be taking place one week from now.

* * *

**Sorry for the crappy ending, and I'm not expecting much reviews for this chapter since it might have been pretty boring, so if you guys have any suggestions or found anything that you didn't like at all about this chapter, feel free to leave a review explaining just that.**

**Also, if any of you guys have a suggestion for Gaara's Zanpakuto's Shikai, let me know through a review or a PM. I'm having a hard time thinking of it. I have an idea for it, but it might not be as good as you guys are expecting it to be.**


	6. The Final Rounds Begin - Sasuke vs Gaara

**Disclaimer:** Always the same.

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews last chapter. I've been super busy writing a movie script- yes, a movie script, for the past few days. I'm no professional or anything like that, but I thought that I might as well try it out. Hopefully I can finish it well and get it noticed by an agent or a company.

I'll be shortening most of the fights and skipping the ones with OCs just so that I don't drag this whole tournament out longer than needed. Also, I have a new arc planned in mind after watching this one movie, and it fits Sasuke's character as well as his wandering shinobi self really well, so be prepared for that. He won't be in Seireitei (long), and he won't be "joining" (maybe) the Gotei 13 just yet.

Anyways, if you guys liked or disliked anything about this chapter, feel free to let me know through a review. Thanks.

**Chapter 6: The Final Rounds Begin – Sasuke vs Gaara**

_There are no enemies here because we've all suffered at Akatsuki's hand! So there is no Suna, no Iwa, no Konoha, no Kiri, and no Kumo! There are only "shinobi!"_

_- Gaara_

Sasuke awoke the next morning to the sound of birds chirping from their nest in the trees outside of his window. Sighing, he sat up in his comfortable bed and looked around the room that he had been given as an accommodation. It was a plain room, with a single desk and chair that sat in the right side of the room along with a bathroom which had in it a toilet and shower. A single lamp stood on the surface of the corner of the desk, and the room itself was lighted from the sunlight that streamed in through the window.

Having dressed in a plain white robe the night before, Sasuke got out of bed and walked over to the restroom where he brushed his teeth and got into the shower. As he stood beneath the showerhead with water steadily pouring over his head and body, he looked down at the floor of the shower as he pressed his hand against the wall.

_How did I get from being a wanderer in Rukongai to here…? Interesting things have been happening recently… This tournament… It could be the first step into regaining the memories of my past life… and my former self…_

After a few long minutes, Sasuke got out of the shower and dressed into his usual attire. Hanging both his chokutō and katana by his purple makeshift rope belt, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

He automatically noticed that the hallway was empty and deathly quiet. _I'm probably the only one up,_ he said to himself as he walked down the hallway and towards the morning buffet in the dining room. _Breakfast, and then training._

… After eating a hearty meal of fried eggs, bacon strips and pancakes, Sasuke headed out to the training grounds which they were told was located on the far right of the dome's dormitory. As he stepped outside, he was surprised to see a single figure already out and training.

When he got closer, he saw that the figure was in fact Gaara, and although he wasn't really training, he was performing Jinzen with his unsheathed Zanpakuto laid across his lap. _So he can communicate with his Zanpakuto too…_ observed Sasuke as he carefully watched him.

"Shukketsu Sunaarashi."

Sasuke's eyes slightly widened as the sound of Gaara's voice. _He was able to sense me approaching him…? That's impressive for a non-Shinigami…_

"My Zanpakuto's name… Shukketsu Sunaarashi," said Gaara in a quiet voice. He opened his eyes and looked at Sasuke, a calm and even look in his eyes. "What's your Zanpakuto's name, Uchiha Sasuke?"

…

"Raiden-ryū," replied Sasuke finally. "How did you know that I could speak to my Zanpakuto? Since you aren't a Shinigami, you-."

"There's no way that someone of your caliber couldn't communicate with their Zanpakuto," interrupted Gaara. "Am I right?"

Sasuke chuckled at this and slowly unsheathed his Zanpakuto. "I suppose so…" Holding the blade right in front of his face, Sasuke closed his eyes and created multiple imaginary enemies in his mind; then, keeping his eyes closed, he braced himself and took up a relaxed yet poised fighting stance as the imaginary enemies circled him, their swords drawn.

…

Using flash step to enhance his footsteps, Sasuke ran at one enemy and quickly dispatched him before spinning on the ball of his foot and slamming the heel of his other foot into another incoming enemy's stomach.

Stabbing down on the ground with his sword, he used it as a leverage and leapt halfway into the air, trapping an enemy's neck with the end of his legs and slamming him into the ground. After that, he quickly pulled his sword out of the ground and swung it at an enemy, catching him by the neck and dispatching of him. "Sensing" another incoming enemy, he turned around and-.

Sasuke was suddenly interrupted by the sound of multiple people clapping, and he opened his eyes to see Suigetsu, Sakura, and Temari standing ten feet away from where he was at, having been watching his whole entire display.

Frowning, he whipped his katana out by his side and slid it back into its sheath. "Suigetsu, huh? I didn't expect you to be up so early."

Suigetsu, frowning as well, held his hands up as he sighed in exasperation. "What's _that_ supposed to mean? I may look lazy, but I'm actually quite an early morning guy." Looking around the training grounds, he let out a whistle of amazement. "This place is pretty big, huh?"

Scoffing, Sasuke walked over to a nearby wooden bench and sat down on it, his arms resting on his knees as his hands hung over them. "So, you're hanging out with those two now? Them being your teammates was just a one-time thing if you didn't know. There's no reason to stick around them now that the first round of the tournament is over."

Sakura and Temari seemed hurt and annoyed by this, but Temari simply just scoffed at this. Sakura, on the other hand, suddenly seemed to snap as if she had finally grown tired of Sasuke's cold and distant behavior towards her.

"What's wrong with you?!" she demanded as she took a step forward, firmly planting her foot on th ground. "I understand that you may not like us, but why do you have to keep acting so cold and rude towards us, huh?! Can't you see that we're just trying to be friends?! If you really don't like us, then just say so!"

Temari looked surprised by Sakura's sudden reaction, and she took a step back in an attempt to try and avoid her rage. "S-Sakura, you…"

Sasuke, who had remained quiet through Sakura's outburst, simply blinked in response and got up from the bench. Turning around, he headed over to the straw dummies that lay on the opposite side of the field, Suigetsu following him closely behind and he gave Sakura and Temari an apologetic and confused look.

As he walked away, Sasuke stopped and turned his head and looked straight at Gaara out of the corner of his eyes. "Get ready, Gaara… I'll see you at the final rounds." And with that, he turned his head and continued on his way.

…

Sighing quietly, Sakura looked down at the ground in front of her as if she had been exhausted by her yelling. A sad look in her eyes, she tried to hold back tears as they threatened to spill from her eyes. _Sasuke… Dammit… Why am I feeling like this…?_

Gaara, who had been quietly observing the one-sided argument, slowly got up from his meditation position and walked back inside the dormitory without a word.

_Very well, Uchiha Sasuke… At the tournament it is then._

|Battle Arena, The Grand Spirit Dome, Soul Society|

_One week later…_

"**Welcome to the final round of the Grand Divisional Tournament! On behalf of the Grand Spirit Dome, I thank you all for coming! Now, please sit tight as the final rounds will begin in approximetly five minutes! Again, thank you all for coming, and enjoy the final rounds!"**

As Sasuke and the other eleven finalists entered the battle arena, they saw that it was in fact a large circular stadium that closely resembled a coliseum. Seated in the battle arena was a crowd of over ten thousand people who had come from all over Seireitei as well as Rukongai. "Whoa!" exclaimed Suigetsu as he looked around the arena. "This place is enormous! A pretty cool place to have a final showdown, huh Sasuke?"

Sasuke simply scoffed in response as he saw Rangiku and Akihiro step out from one of the five entrances and into the arena. As they reached the group of finalists, Rangiku waved at Sasuke unprofessionally, a cute smile on her face. "_Hey Sasuke_!" she sang out as she and Akihiro stopped in front of the group. "Are you ready for the big day?"

… "Sure," replied Sasuke flatly.

Rangiku frowned at his dead reply, but before she could say anything else, Akihiro interrupted her. "Ok you guys, listen up," he said in his usual bored and lazy tone. "Here are the rules for the final round of the tournament. First of all, any strategy or tactic is allowed. This basically means that there are no such things as illegal moves, but fatal moves such as a one-hit kill is not allowed. You may knock out your opponent with a single move if you can, but you're forbidden to kill them unless they drag the fight on to the point where there's no other option. Understand?" He looked at Menma as he said this, but the cocky male simply smirked in response.

"Also, the fight goes on until one of the opponents admits defeat or is killed," continued Akihiro. "Any Kido spell is allowed, and the restriction placed on releasing one's Zanpakuto is removed. And finally, if Rangiku-san or I see that the fight is going one way and is hopeless to one of the opponents, then we have the right to stop the fight. There are no ifs, ands, and buts, and if you try to argue with any of us, then we'll disqualify you immediately. Does this make sense?"

All of the twelve finalists nodded once in confirmation.

"Very well then." Akihiro grinned as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. "I look forward to your matches. Now, first things first. Rangiku-san will explain the final round match-ups to you all, then we'll get this whole entire thing underway." As he stepped back, Rangiku stepped forward and held up a medium-sized bulletin with the match-ups on it.

"Ok, I'll explain this one last time," she began. "The winners of the first and second match will face off against each other, and the same goes for the third and fourth as well as the fifth and sixth matches. After that, those three pairs will be divided into matches seven, eight, and nine. Then the winners of matches seven and eight will face off against each other, and the winner of _that_ match will be facing the winner of match nine in the very final match of the tournament. Did everyone get that?"

Once they all nodded again, she continued. "Once you finish your match, head over to the infirmary where Unohana-taichou will heal your wounds before your next match. After that, you'll head back over to the waiting booth for the finalists and wait there until your next match." Taking a deep breath, she lowered the bulletin and gave everyone an encouraging smile. "Now, the first match-up is Temari vs Doku, so you two stay here while all of the other finalists head up to the waiting booth."

At her word, the finalists save Temari and Doku headed up for the waiting booth obediently without another word. As they reached the said booth, all ten of them chose their respective spots and leaned against the railing as they waited patiently for the first match to begin.

…

"Ok you two, step forward to the center and shake hands," ordered Akihiro as he snapped his fingers at the spot on the ground in front of him. When the two first match-ups stepped up to the center and shook hands, Akihiro nodded and glanced at both of them before looking back up at the audience.

"Alright then… Let the first match of the final rounds begin!" And with the roar of the audience, the first match between Temari and Doku began.

…

For the first minute of the beginning of the match, Temari and Doku circled each other with their swords- Doku had acquired a short sword through unknown methods- drawn and held out in front of them. The audience waited quietly for one of them to make the first move.

After the minute of stillness had passed, Temari, smirking at her opponent, twirled her Zanpakuto in her hand and ran forward at Sony with her weapon held out by her side. "Take… this!" she yelled as she slashed at his side.

Doku, having seen this attack incoming, held up his sword by his side and deflected the attack, and the crowd went wild as the first clang of swords rang throughout the arena.

"Hah!" He laughed out loud as he launched a series of jabs at Temari, quickly proving himself to be a formidable swordsman. Temari, although a skilled swordsman herself, struggled to keep up with his speedy moves, and she grimaced slightly as the point of his blade sliced off a single strand of her hair. _Che!_ she scoffed in her head. _I knew that he was fast from his fight in the semi-finals, but he's pretty skilled with a sword as well… Or wait, is he…?_

Bracing herself, she found a firm footing and crouched down low as she swept at his legs with her sword. Doku looked surprised by this, but his quickness allowed him to dodge the attack in the nick of time as he jumped up into the air in a crouch motion.

_Heh…_ Temari grinned as she swung her katana upwards in an attempt to catch him while he was still in mid-air. _Just as I thought… His only strong point is his speed… If he was even the slightest bit familiar with wielding a sword, he would have used the second that I was unable to attack to attack me with his sword._

Having confirmed her opponent's weakness, Temari used this opportunity to execute an impressive combination of intermediate-leveled moves in order to overwhelm Doku. This strategy proved to be effective, and Doku's eyes widened in surprise as he found himself being overwhelmed by Temari's sheer swordsmanship skills alone. _Dammit…! Maybe using a sword for this chick wasn't the best idea… In that case…_ Grinning, he suddenly dropped his sword and flickered to Temari's backside, catching her off-guard and striking her side with a pivoted roundhouse kick.

Temari struggled not to cry out in pain as she went flying over five feet away, and she clenched her teeth as she quickly rethought her strategy. _Che, is looks like he quickly realized his mistake… Now he's switching to Hakuda, and I'm definitely nowhere near as skilled at that as he is…! I __**could**__ use my Shikai, but I want to save it for the later rounds so that I don't give away my secret weapon right from the beginning._

As she narrowly avoided a series of jabs from Doku, she grinned as she completed her strategy. _Well, to gain some, I have to lose some._

… The rest of the fight dragged on for a long ten minutes. It was Temari's turn to be overwhelmed by Doku's fast and precise punches and kicks, but she soon used her head and tricked him into thinking that he had the upper hand. Purposely using sluggish and ineffective moves, she got him into his cocky and arrogant self that he had shown himself to be in the earlier rounds.

After he let his guard down, she, having lured him near a tree, quickly used flash step to get behind him and pin him against the tree with the edge of her blade against the nape of his neck. "Well?" she hissed. "Give it up now, or you'll end up dead in exactly five seconds… Five… Four… Three…"

Baring his teeth, Doku realized that he had nothing left that he could do and closed his eyes as he nodded. "Very well then," he growled. "I give up."

Stepping forward from the neutral zone, Rangiku raised her hand as she reached the two. "And the winner of the first match for the final rounds of the Grand Divisional Tournament is Temari!"

The crowd cheered loudly in celebratory of Temari's victory, and as she headed up towards the waiting booth, Akihiro walked up to Rangiku's side and raised his hand for the crowd's attention. "Now that the first match of the final rounds is over with, the second match between Halo and Yadomaru will now begin!"

… The match was a fairly quick one. Halo, a blonde female with considerable above average skills, was more than enough for Yadomaru, a violet-haired male with strange silver eyes. His skills were flat-out average to the point where it was almost appalling to watch him being beaten by Halo. Although he managed to get one or two good blows in, Halo, whose specialty lied in her fairly superior Hakuda skills, was able to knock him out of the match with a strong right hook to his jaw. The match was over in five minutes.

After the second match ended, the whole entire arena grew deathly silent, as did the tournament competitors. It was as if the very air itself was filled to the brim with a silent electricity as all life in the arena quietly awaited the third match of the tournament.

"The whole entire arena seems to have changed," Sakura murmured quietly. "All because of the next match…"

Temari, who had been healed by Unohana-taichou, nodded from Sakura's side, her arms crossed as she watched Sasuke and Gaara silently walking down the two sets of stairs simultaneously. "Yea… This is probably going to be the most exciting match yet… Two non-Shinigami who both wield Zanpakuto…"

"You have a Zanpakuto as well, Temari-san," Sakura pointed out. "But then again, you didn't have to use your Shikai." She frowned as she watched Sasuke and Gaara walk towards the center of the battle arena. "I wonder if we'll be able to see theirs. I've never seen a Zanpakuto release before, so…"

"Well, be prepared to see at least one," said Temari quietly. "With the level of skills that'll be taking up the next couple of matches, one of them is bound to release their Zanpakuto."

…

As Sasuke and Gaara faced each other, they stared at each other with a serious look in their eyes, both silent.

"Are you ready, Uchiha Sasuke?" asked Gaara in a calm tone.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he gripped the hilt of his chokutō. "A pointless question."

"Ok, are you two ready?" Akihiro nodded at the two opponents, and he raised his arm as he took a deep breath. "Ok, the third match between Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara… Begin!" His arm flashed down, signaling the start of the match.

Right as Akihiro's arm flashed down in the corner of both Sasuke and Gaara's eyes, they both unsheathed their respective weapons and clashed together.

As their blades locked together, Sasuke quickly pulled apart from Gaara and spun around, swinging his blade in a wide arc. Gaara, seeing this, stuck his sword out in front of him, the blade point pointing down. The force of the attack forced him back a few inches, and Gaara grimaced as he struggled to keep his stance.

"Such strength…" observed Gaara as he leapt backwards. "It's no wonder you were able to pass the preliminary round so easily." Having said that, he sped forward with his sword held out by his side. As he jumped into the air, he swung down at Sasuke, who easily blocked the blow.

"You're an extremely skilled swordsman too," said Gaara as he stabbed at Sasuke multiple times rapidly. "Much more so than I had thought."

Sasuke evaded each and every stab and stroke of Gaara's blade with masterful agility that caused the audience to fall silent as they watched the match intently. "You're not so bad yourself," said Sasuke as a strand of his hair was sliced off by the tip of Gaara's blade. Leaning back halfway in order to avoid a long stab from Gaara's blade, Sasuke leaned back all the way and executed a backflip while clipping Gaara's jaw with the heel of his foot.

Gaara winced in pain as he stepped back clumsily, but he quickly recovered from the hit and rushed forward with his sword in hand. As he reached Sasuke, he extended his fist out in a punch, and as Sasuke ducked to avoid the blow, Gaara switched his Zanpakuto from his right hand to his left, and, spinning his sword in his hand so that he was holding it in reverse grip, he stabbed down at Sasuke with it.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he saw Gaara's movements from the corner of his eyes, and he was barely able to avoid the attack as he swerved his head to the side. His eyes widened as the edge of Gaara's blade passed right by his cheek narrowly, and he scoffed silently to himself as he crouched down and swung his leg in an arc in an attempt to trip and disable Gaara temporarily.

Gaara quickly crouched down and leapt into the air, and he stabbed down with his sword in mid-air, aiming to get Sasuke's right leg. Sasuke was able to dodge the attack however, and he leapt back as he brandished his Zanpakuto out in front of him.

_Che… That move that he just executed a moment ago… That was definitely an A-rank swordsmanship move right there… It seems that I've been underestimating him._ Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke felt a grin tug at the corner of his mouth as Gaara rushed forward and started to throw jabs, punches and kicks at him.

"So we're going with Hakuda, huh?" commented Sasuke as he blocked and parried Gaara's blows. "Alright, bring it!" As Gaara swung his leg at him, Sasuke ducked and kicked out with his foot. Gaara managed to block the blow with the flat of his blade, and he quickly spun around and swung his fist at Sasuke for a right hook.

As Sasuke blocked another kick with his wrist held up by his face, his eyes narrowed as he scoffed. "Is this all you got?" he asked, contempt in his voice as he grabbed Gaara's wrist before he could swing forward with his sword. "Pathetic, Sabaku no Gaara." And having said that, Sasuke released his grip on Gaara's wrist and slammed his foot hard into his chest, sending him flying over ten feet away.

As Gaara skidded on the ground, he leapt up into the air with a backflip and stabbed down with his sword in an attempt to slow himself down. As he landed on the ground, Gaara stared at Sasuke with an even look in his eyes.

"It seems that my Zanjutsu and Hakuda skills are much inferior to yours," he said in a calm voice. "Anything else would be pointless."

Sasuke frowned at this. "What are you saying?"

Gaara didn't respond as he held his Zanpakuto out in front of him horizontally. As he placed his hand right over the point of the blade, he narrowed his eyes as he stared hard at Sasuke. "Bleed, Shukketsu Sunaarashi."

THUD! The entire arena seemed to explode into a massive cloud of dust and smoke as a massive burst of reiatsu emitted from Gaara's Zanpakuto. Sasuke squinted as he tried to peer through the smoke, his arms shielding his face as bits of dust and sand pelted him.

_This reiatsu… It's wind._

Once the smoke cleared up, Gaara was seen holding a large gunbai, the main portion of the war fan being a little over half as tall as Gaara was. The fan two-portioned was a dull silver color with a thin and light green border that was almost brown. It had a long eighteen inch white handle, and even though it looked like it was made out of metal, Gaara was able to wield the gourd-like fan as if it was almost made out of paper.

"This is my Zanpakuto's true form, Shukketsu Sunaarashi," said Gaara quietly. "Uchiha Sasuke… get ready." And with that, he raised his fan and swung down at the air in front of him, surprising Sasuke as a giant gust of wind made of reiatsu was expelled from the fan.

As the gust of wind blew towards Sasuke, he was surprised to see a large and almost dust storm-like wave of sand speeding towards him. _Sand?!_ Sasuke grimaced as he executed multiple backflips in order to dodge the attack, but he saw Gaara swing his gunbai from the corner of his eyes.

As Gaara swung his gunbai again, it seemed to be able to manipulate the sand as it quickly transformed into an "X" and swerved right, heading towards Sasuke again. Sasuke swore in his head as he planted a hand on the ground and used his arm muscle to propel himself into the air, narrowly dodging the second attack.

"So you can manipulate the wind and sand, huh?" he commented as he went flying through the air. "What an annoying ability."

Gaara simply blinked in reply as he manipulated the sand by making a twirling motion with his gunbai in the air. "Suna no Tatsumaki." A large stream of sand suddenly surrounded Sasuke as he planted his feet on the ground and started to surround him as it wrapped itself around the air that surrounded him.

Sasuke looked around as he began to be trapped inside a whirling vortex of sand, and as he reached out with his hand, he narrowed his eyes as his hand was knocked back by the high-speed whirling sand. _The speed of the sand is impressive…_ Closing his eyes, Sasuke took a step back and pointed a single finger at what seemed to be the weak spot of the sand tornado.

Gaara's eyes narrowed as nothing went on from within the vortex of sand. "Why aren't you releasing your Zanpakuto, Uchiha Sasuke?" he asked in a flat tone. "I know that your skills surpass mine, but at this rate, you won't be able to defeat me without releasing your-."

"Hadō #4: Byakurai."

Gaara's eyes widened as a stream of blue-white lightning penetrated through the sand vortex… and headed straight for him. _Oh shi-!_ Gaara quickly raised his gunbai so that the whole flat base of the fan was shielding most of his body. The Kido spell hit the gunbai straight on, but all it managed to do was knock it back a millimeter as the spot where it hit sizzled.

"My Zanpakuto… isn't meant for things like that," replied Sasuke calmly.

"Impressive…" Gaara gave Sasuke an acknowledging look as he stared at the now-freed Sasuke standing not ten feet away from him, his Zanpakuto in hand. "You used the moment of exposure from Byakurai to force your way through the opening… It looks like your Kido has improved."

Remaining silent, Sasuke simply grinned in response as he sped forward with an augmented flash step, swinging his sword at the surprised Gaara in a wide arc. Gaara grimaced as he stepped back, and he raised his gunbai as their two weapons clashed together with a loud "clang!"

… From their position in the waiting booth, Suigetsu, Sakura, and Temari looked as if they had been completely drawn into the fight as they watched the match with wide, unblinking eyes.

"So his Zanpakuto is a wind-type?" asked Sakura rhetorically. "He can manipulate the sand too…! So is _that_ what a Zanpakuto release looks like?" Her eyes narrowed as she watched Sasuke and Gaara continue to clash, and the audience of thousands gasped in surprise as the tip of Sasuke's blade sliced deep into Gaara's left arm.

"Still… Sasuke's fast enough to avoid that red-haired kid's sand attacks, so as long as he can continue dodging all of his wind-manipulation attacks like he is right now, he can force him into a defensive position," commented Suigetsu.

Temari nodded in agreement. "Sasuke's much more skilled in Zanjutsu, Hakuda, and he's a lot faster than Gaara… I hate to say it, but it's clear who the winner is here… Well, depending all on how he uses his Zanpakuto's ability of course."

...

Five minutes later into the fight, Sasuke and Gaara both stood five feet away from each other as they panted from exhaustion. Gaara had a deep wound on his left arm as well as a few shallow cuts that covered his legs. There was a single cut on his right cheek, and he struggled not to grimace in pain from his stinging wounds.

Sasuke, however, had no wounds whatsoever; instead, he was plain out exhausted from dodging Gaara's constant barrage of wind and sand attacks. It wasn't so much of an advantage as it was a disadvantage as it was obvious that he wasn't as fast as he was just a few minutes ago. Gaara's skilled and constant streams of sand that whipped around Sasuke were annoying to deal with as they practically forced him onto the defensive side, and Sasuke had to put all of his concentration into dodging every single grain of sand that flew his way.

"Let's… end… this… fight…" said Sasuke in-between breaths. "This fight's… been going on… for too long."

Gaara simply nodded in response as he straightened up. "I agree…" Raising his gunbai, Gaara called up a giant wave of sand that closely resembled a mini-tsunami. The audience gasped in awe as they beheld the sight, and the tournament finalists from the waiting booth looked surprised by the awesome sight; even Menma looked slightly surprised by it.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide as he looked up at the giant wave of sand. "What is this…?" he whispered quietly to himself.

"Kurasshu no Nami," replied Gaara in an even tone. "Get ready, Uchiha Sasuke." And with that, Gaara swung down vertically with his gunbai, and the wave of sand surged forward as it crashed down on Sasuke.

_Shit!_ Sasuke braced himself as the wave of sand leapt forward towards him, and he used flash step to quickly dodge to the side as a giant stream of sand slammed into the spot where he was just at a second ago. Gaara swung his gunbai and manipulated multiple streams of sand that sped towards Sasuke, and Sasuke used his speed and agility to weave in and out between them as he gradually travelled closer and closer to where Gaara was at.

THUD! Sasuke grimaced in pain as he was knocked back over ten feet by a giant trunk-like stream of sand that slammed into his side, and slamming his katana into the ground, he descended to a halt in mid-air and flash stepped to an unoccupied zone right in front of Gaara.

Gaara seemed surprised by this, and as Sasuke swung forward with his sword, he swung his gunbai at him in an attempt to take him out with a pressurized blast of wind, but his reaction was too slow.

The sound of Sasuke's sword slicing into Gaara's arm and chest rang throughout the battle arena, and the audience fell deathly silent as Gaara fell backwards, defeated.

After a few moments, Rangiku stepped forward from the neutral zone by the sidelines and looked over Gaara's still body. Gaara struggled to get into a sitting position, and as he sat upright, there was a calm and accepting look on his face as he glanced at Sasuke who was standing above him.

"And the winner of the third match is Uchiha Sasuke!" announced Rangiku, and the quiet arena exploded with a roar as the audience cheered and screamed their approval.

"Sasuke," called out Gaara as Sasuke started to walk away.

Sasuke turned around and looked back at Gaara, giving him a questioning look.

"Don't limit yourself to small things," said Gaara in a calm and mellow tone as he stared hard at Sasuke. "I know what you're thinking right now, but don't limit this tournament to something as trivial as testing your own strength; instead, use this tournament as a stepping stone into something much more bigger than yourself. You won't regret it."

…

Letting out a quiet scoff, Sasuke turned around and resumed walking away.

As he reached the waiting booth, Suigetsu welcomed him with a loud laugh and a clap to the back. "That was a pretty good match, Sasuke!" he grinned, revealing his sharp and pointed teeth. "Taking out a Shikai without releasing your own Zanpakuto is a pretty big feat."

Sasuke simply remained quiet as he stared out at the arena, unmoving even as the other finalists congratulated him.

…

"And now everyone, we'll be moving onto the fourth match of the final rounds!" announced Rangiku in a loud and firm voice. "Suigetsu and Buzz, please enter the battle arena grounds. Again, Suigetsu and Buzz please enter the battle arena grounds!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Yea yea, I know. The fight between Sasuke and Gaara wasn't as good as you guys were expecting. I've just been so busy lately that my brain was kind of fried when I was writing this chapter. I'm so sorry, but I promise (seriously) that Sasuke and Menma's fight will be epic. It may take a while to finish the chapter, but I'll definitely make it worth the wait.**

**Translations:**

**Shukketsu Sunaarashi: Bleeding Sandstorm.**

**Suna no Tatsumaki: Sand Tornado.**

**Kurasshu no Nami: Crashing Wave.**


End file.
